Modulation of growth hormone receptor expression and insulin-like growth factor expression

ABSTRACT

Compounds, compositions and methods are provided for modulating the expression of growth hormone receptor and/or insulin like growth factor-I (IGF-I). The compositions comprise oligonucleotides, targeted to nucleic acid encoding growth hormone receptor. Methods of using these compounds for modulation of growth hormone receptor expression and for diagnosis and treatment of disease associated with expression of growth hormone receptor and/or insulin-like growth factor-I are provided. Diagnostic methods and kits are also provided.

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 10/789,526, filed Feb. 26, 2004, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/451,455, filed Feb. 28, 2003, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/490,230, filed Jul. 25, 2003, the entire disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety for all purposes.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides compositions and methods for modulating the expression of growth hormone receptor. In particular, this invention relates to compounds, particularly oligonucleotide compounds, which, in preferred embodiments, hybridize with nucleic acid molecules encoding growth hormone receptor. Such compounds are shown herein to modulate the expression of growth hormone receptor and also to modulate the expression of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-I) to animal and human equivalent therapeutic levels which are relevant to the treatment of diseases including acromegaly, gigantism, age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, diabetic nephropathy, diabetes, and growth hormone and IGF-I dependent tumors. The growth hormone receptor modulating effects are also relevant to the treatment of arthritis and other conditions involving growth hormone receptor and/or growth hormone/insulin-like growth factor-I axis. Similarly, antisense compounds directed to any one or more of the targets in the growth hormone/insulin-like growth factor-I axis, including growth hormone, growth hormone receptor, IGF-I and IGF-I receptor, can be used in the treatment of the same conditions.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Growth hormone, released by the pituitary, is a member of a cascade of hormones that regulate growth of the body and its organs. Secretion of growth hormone into the bloodstream is followed by binding to growth hormone receptor (GHR) on many cell and organ types. Growth hormone signaling is mediated by this interaction. Growth hormone signaling causes the production of another hormone, insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I or IGF-1), which is produced in the liver, adipose tissue and kidney and secreted into the bloodstream. About 75% of serum IGF-I is produced in the liver in response to growth hormone stimulation. Many disorders are caused by and/or associated with elevated growth hormone levels and/or elevated IGF-I levels in plasma and/or tissues including acromegaly, gigantism, retinopathy, macular degeneration, nephropathy, diabetes and cancers. This role of IGF-I in mediating many growth hormone effects is well recognized and the interrelationship is referred to as the growth hormone/insulin-like growth factor-I axis. In a normal feedback loop, IGF-I also causes the production of growth hormone by the pituitary to be reduced.

Growth hormone is produced and secreted by a set of specialized cells in the anterior pituitary. Growth hormone has direct and indirect effects on many tissues, such as stimulating bone and soft tissue growth and influencing carbohydrate, protein, and lipid metabolism. Direct biological activities of growth hormone include receptor binding, internalization of the hormone/receptor complex, and activation of proteins involved in signal transduction.

Protein and RNA transcripts for receptors of growth hormone (GHR) have been detected in many of the tissues influenced by the hormone. It was determined that a single molecule of growth hormone binds sequentially to two receptor molecules, forming an active complex. This complex, in turn, signals stimulation of other genes, including IGF-I. IGF-I, produced and secreted by the liver and other target tissues, mediates some of the indirect effects of growth hormone on growth and development. Other intracellular events occurring after the growth hormone/growth hormone receptor interaction include activation of tyrosine kinases such as Janus kinase 2 (Jak-2), which leads to phosphorylation and activation of other proteins including signal transducer and activator of transcription 5A and 5B (STAT 5A and 5B) and mitogen activated protein (MAP) kinase that, in turn, activate other proteins and genes.

The cDNA encoding the growth hormone receptor has been cloned from many species. The receptor consists of an extracellular hormone-binding region (exons 2-7), a single membrane spanning region (exon 8), and an intracellular region (exons 9-10). There are also multiple alternative 5′ untranslated regions which are alternative first exons of the gene, in both the human and mouse transcripts. Growth hormone receptor has no intrinsic kinase domain, but the intracellular region plays a major role in the signal transduction process. A truncated form of the receptor, known as growth hormone binding protein (GHBP), lacks the transmembrane and intracellular regions of growth hormone receptor and is secreted into the serum. The truncated protein is produced by one of two different processes, depending on the animal species. In mice and rats, alternative splicing of growth hormone receptor precursor messenger RNA replaces the transmembrane and intracellular regions with a very short hydrophilic tail (encoded by exon 8A; 15, 16). In humans, cows, and pigs (among others), no alternative RNA splicing is apparent but instead the GHBP is produced by proteolysis of the growth hormone receptor. The function of the binding protein appears to be to modulate the level of circulating growth hormone.

Growth hormone receptor is expressed in many organs and tissues including liver, adipose tissue, muscle, cartilage, bone, tooth, kidney, eye, cardiovascular system, gut, reproductive organs, skin, brain, endocrine system and immune system.

The three-dimensional structure of the extracellular domain of growth hormone receptor has been established. It consists of two modules, each of about 100 amino acids, arranged as two sandwiches each with seven strands of beta-sheet. The secreted form of the extracellular domain of growth hormone receptor is the GHBP.

The growth hormone receptor is biologically responsive to growth hormone stimulation. JAK2 is the primary effector molecule for growth hormone receptor signaling. JAK2 is activated post growth hormone receptor dimerisation. When the growth hormone dimerizes its receptors, the JAKs are brought close together, and with proper alignment transphosphorylate each other, leading to full activation. The intracellular targets for the JAKs include tyrosine residues in the receptor cytoplasmic domain itself, which in turn activate SH2 domains (STATS, Shc and SHP2). These may go on to activate the MAP kinase pathway, which regulates cell proliferation. JAK2 also phosphorylates and activates other signaling molecules, such as IRS-1 and -2 and phosphatidyl 3-inositol kinase, which are important parts of the insulin signaling mechanism and may account for the insulin-like actions of growth hormone. Activated JAK2 also phosphorylates STAT5, and when activated, is involved in the transcription of a number of genes.

Growth hormone receptor activation leads to many actions in many organs including the following outcomes in the following organs:

Liver: Increased secretion of insulin-like growth factor-I, synthesis of plasma proteins, regulation of nitrogen balance enzymes, increased carbohydrate synthesis/storage, and increased fat breakdown; Adipose Tissue: Breakdown of fat stores; Muscle: Increased protein synthesis, decreased protein breakdown; Cartilage: Increased height by increasing proliferation and differentiation of chondrocytes in growth plate; Bone & Tooth: Increased turnover of tissue, both synthesis and breakdown; Kidney: Increased sodium, bicarbonate and water retention; Eye: increased retinal neovascularization; Cardiovascular: Hypertrophy, increased contractility, stroke volume, cardiac output; Gut: Hypertrophy, increased amino acid, sodium, calcium, phosphate and B12 uptake; Reproductive System: Increased sperm production and motility, increased accessory gland secretion in male, increased number of follicles and ovulation rate, increased follicular maturation rate, increased milk production; Skin: Increased skin thickness and strength, increased hair growth and thickness; Brain: Increased neuron proliferation and connectivity prenatally, increased myelin formation, improved long-term memory; Endocrine System: Increased insulin synthesis and secretion, increased adrenal steroidogenesis; Immune System: Increased immune cell proliferation, increased killing by monocytes, macrophages and NK cells, increased antibody production.

Downstream from growth hormone receptor in the growth hormone signaling pathway are IGF-I and IGF-I receptor. The insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) are important in proliferation. In particular, IGF-I and IGF-2 are ubiquitous polypeptides each with potent mitogenic effects on a broad range of cells. Molecules of the insulin-like growth factor type are also known as “progression factors” promoting “competent” cells through DNA synthesis. The insulin-like growth factors act through a common receptor known as the Type I receptor or IGF-IR, which is tyrosine kinase linked.

Particular proteins, referred to as insulin-like growth factor binding proteins (IGFBPs), appear to be involved in autocrine/paracrine regulation of tissue insulin-like growth factor availability (Rechler and Brown, Growth Regulation, 1992, 2, 55-68). Six IGFBPs have so far been identified. The exact effects of the IGFBPs are not clear and observed effects in vitro have been inhibitory or stimulatory depending on the experimental method employed (Clemmons, Growth Regn. 1992, 2, 80,). There is some evidence, however, that certain IGFBPs are involved in targeting insulin-like growth factor-I to its cell surface receptor. Also expression of IGFBP-3 is regulated by growth hormone (Karen et al, supra).

The IGF-IR is a tyrosine kinase linked cell surface receptor (Ullrich et al., EMBO J. 1986, 5, 2503-2512,) that regulates cell division, transformation and apoptosis in many cell types (LeRoith et al., Endocr. Rev., 1995, 16, 143-163; Rubin and Baserga, Laboratory Investigation, 1995, 73, 311-331).

If feedback regulation of growth hormone production is lost and the pituitary continues to release aberrant amounts of growth hormone, the level of insulin-like growth factor-I continues to rise, leading to bone growth and organ enlargement. The excess growth hormone also causes changes in sugar and lipid metabolism, which may lead to diabetes. Defects in the growth hormone signalling pathway often lead to abnormalities of stature and body and/or organ size. Mutations in the growth hormone receptor gene result in extreme short stature (Laron's syndrome). Excessive production of growth hormone can lead to acromegaly or gigantism.

Acromegaly and gigantism are related growth disorders wherein growth hormone excess, sometimes caused by pituitary tumor, causes progressive cosmetic disfigurement and systemic organ manifestations. It affects 40-50 per million people worldwide with about 15,000 sufferers in each of the US and Europe and an annual incidence of about 4-5 per million. It is initially characterized by abnormal growth of the hands and feet and bony changes in the facial features. Patients have reduced quality of life with overgrowth of the jaw, enlargement of hands and feet, deepening of the voice, thickening of skin, offensive body odor, articular cartilage problems, hyperphosphatemia, peripheral neuropathies, higher blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, and have a reduced life expectancy if untreated. The mortality rate is about twice that of the normal population due to cardiorespiratory and cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and neoplasia, particularly colon cancer. The goal of current treatment is to reverse the effects of the hypersecretion of growth hormone and normalize production of IGF-I which is elevated by about 50% in these patients. When effective, treatment moderates disease symptoms and disease-associated mortality.

Gigantism, the disease of excess growth hormone in children, is a rare disorder. In gigantism, excessive linear growth occurs whilst epiphyseal growth plates are open during childhood with growth hormone excess caused via a benign pituitary tumor. In both gigantism and acromegaly, all growth parameters are affected, although not necessarily symmetrically. Many of the growth related outcomes are mediated by elevated levels of serum IGF-I. Serum blood levels of IGF-I are elevated by about 50% in patients and reduction of serum IGF-I is used to monitor treatment success.

Treatments for acromegaly and gigantism involve the ability to lower the elevated IGF-I in plasma. This may be achieved by surgical removal and radiation therapy of the benign pituitary tumor but this is effective in only 50% of patients. Dopamine agonists such as bromocriptine mesylate or cabergoline may be dosed orally which is convenient but they only reduce growth hormone production and associated IGF-I sufficiently in 10% of cases. They also produce significant gastrointestinal and central side effects in 20-30% of patients. Also used in treatment of acromegaly are the somatostatin analogues such as Sandostatin or octreotide, which inhibit the release of growth hormone releasing hormone (GHRH) from the hypothalamus, and/or pituitary and thereby reducing production of growth hormone in the pituitary. This compound is effective in 60-65% patients with acromegaly but it must be injected under the skin every 8 hours or intramuscularly for effective treatment.

Recently a growth hormone receptor antagonist, Trovert, also known as Somavert, Pegvisomant and B2036-PEG, was shown in clinical trials to be effective in 90-95% of patients. Clinical trial experience to date shows a 10% drop-out rate and adverse effects such as liver dysfunction. Trovert is a growth hormone molecule with a 9 amino acid substitution with 4-5 pegylations to increase half life. Like all modified proteins it is immunogenic, with antibodies being made to Trovert within 1 month of dosing. This can impact Trovert's short and long term utility and makes dosing difficult to predict. Trovert was initially dosed once per month by subcutaneous (sc) administration, but current clinical practice suggests dosing will need to be once/day sc. Trovert interferes with growth hormone binding to its receptor but not the Growth Hormone Binding Protein (GHBP) fragment of the growth hormone receptor. GHBP binds growth hormone prolonging its action, which can be disadvantageous in conditions involving excess growth hormone and/or excess IGF-I. Pegylation may also impact on Trovert's long term safety profile.

Diabetes and its life threatening complications such as diabetic retinopathy and nephropathy are also disorders associated with growth hormone and/or IGF-I levels. First line treatment of these conditions involves controlling hyperglycemia. Drugs that control diabetes reduce the incidence of nephropathy by 60% and also reduce the incidence of retinopathy. However, about half of all diabetics are unaware of disease and therefore remain untreated, so diabetic nephropathy and retinopathy are likely to remain a major condition requiring other treatments. In retinopathy surgical ablative treatments such as laser pan-retinal photocoagulation are used but these remain incompletely effective and destroy retinal tissue, causing partial vision field loss. In type I diabetics ACE and All inhibitors decrease albuminuria excretion by acting on the kidney and in Type II diabetics the same inhibitors act locally on kidney and also decrease blood pressure to reduce the risk of death from kidney failure by another 50%. However, 20-30% of patients remain resistant to treatment with current glycemic control drugs and ACE drugs. There is thus a need for better treatments.

The underlying cause of diabetes, diabetic retinopathy and diabetic nephropathy may be insulin related hyperglycemia, but growth hormone and/or insulin-like growth factor-I excess is also important. Octreotide inhibitors of GHRH that decrease production of pituitary growth hormone, reducing systemic levels of growth hormone and IGF-I, and/or modulating local tissue levels show potential in the clinic. A study with octreotide by Grant et al., Diabetes Care, 2000, 2, 504-9) reducing sIGF-1 by 51% at maximally tolerated doses of octreotide 5000 μg/day sc reduced the need for laser surgery in retinopathy patients to 1 patient out of 22 rather than 9/22 in placebo in a 15 month study. Also ocular disease was reduced to 27% vs placebo of 42% bordering on significance (P 0.06). Three human studies using octreotide at levels that reduced sIGF1 45%, about 20% and about 10% respectively were at least partly effective in clinical trials of nephropathy. The outcome reported by Serin et al. (JAMA, 1991, 265, 888-92) with 11 patients used high doses of octreotide in a 12 week study that reduced serum IGF-I by 45%. At the time it was stated to be the best effect observed on reducing glomerular filtration rate with a 22-33% reduction relative to placebo. This dose, however, was near maximally tolerated doses of octreotide.

Animal pathology model studies with octreotide and Trovert also support the view that agents that modulate the growth hormone/insulin-like growth factor-I axis are beneficial in the treatment of these diabetic conditions. Growth hormone and its receptor are implicated in the induction of glomerular hypertrophy and sclerosis in partial nephrectomy and diabetic nephropathy with somatostatin inhibitors octreotide and PTR-3173 (Groenbaek et al., J. Endocrinol., 2002, 172, 637-643 and Landau et al, Kidney International, 2001, 60, 505-512) and growth hormone receptor antagonist, G120K-PEG, a weaker version of Trovert, preventing complications in type I and Type II diabetic mice (Chen et al, Endocrinology, 1996, 137, 11, 5136-5165; Flyvbjerg et al, Diabetes, 1999, 40,377-382, and Segev et al., J. Am. Soc. Nephrol. 1999, 10,2374-81). Growth hormone and its receptor are implicated in the induction of retinal neovascularization through IGF-I with somatostatin inhibitors octreotide and growth hormone receptor antagonist MK678, inhibiting retinal neovascularization in mice. MK678 reduction of neovascularization correlated with low serum IGF-I (Smith et al, Science, 1997, 276, 1706-9). Oxygen induced retinopathy in the mouse was also responsive to octreotide as reported by Higgins et al., Exp. Eye Res, 2002, 74,553-9.

Macular degeneration is also associated with elevated growth hormone and/or IGF-I levels. Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is caused by deterioration of the central part of the retina, the macula, resulting in loss of detailed vision. Wet AMD, the less common form, is caused by leakage from new blood vessels growing behind the retina. The growth hormone/IGF-I axis is involved in formation of new blood vessels relevant to this condition and to diabetic retinopathy.

Various cancers are also associated with aberrant growth hormone and/or IGF-I levels. Reduction of serum IGF-I by 20-50% using Trovert decreased tumor volume in breast cancer in animal models and helped in colon cancer, liver metastasis, and meningiomas (Friend et al, Proceedings 11th NCI EORTC. AACR Symposium and Friend, Growth Horm. IGF Res., 2001, June: 11 Suppl A: S121-3). The incidence of breast, colon, prostate, and lung cancer is increased in individuals in the high normal range of serum IGF-I. There have been no clinical studies with Trovert in cancers. However, octreotide is indicated for gastro-pancreatic cancers.

Other conditions that may be associated with elevated growth hormone and/or IGF-I levels include rheumatoid arthritis. A pilot clinical study showed octreotide was useful for the treatment of active refractory rheumatoid arthritis in a subset of patients (Paran et al., Ann. Rheum. Dis., 2001, 60, 888-91. with comments and authors' reply in Ann. Rheum. Dis., 2002, 61, 1117).

Longevity may also be improved with modulation of growth hormone receptor (Coschigano et al., Endocrinology, 2000, 141, 2608-2613). There was a significant increase in lifespan of nearly a year in double knockout animals with low levels of IGF-I and high levels of growth hormone.

Another application to modifying levels of growth hormone and/or IGF-I via the growth hormone receptor may enable stem cell differentiation towards neural cell production as growth hormone inhibits neuronal differentiation of neural progenitor cells (Turnley et al., Nature Neuroscience, 7 Oct. 2002, published online). Other applications will be known to those skilled in the art.

Although the underlying roles in various disease or conditions may be different, the above conditions arise at least in part from incorrect levels of expression of local and/or systemic growth factors growth hormone and IGF-I and/or their receptors growth hormone receptor and IGF-IR. In these situations, dopamine agonists, somatostatin antagonists, and growth hormone receptor antagonists targeting the proteins have been used and/or shown potential.

While a range of treatments have been developed for agents that modify the growth hormone-insulin-like growth factor axis, and growth hormone receptor and IGF-IR, none is completely effective and/or free of adverse side effects. Moreover, there is potential disadvantages in the routes and/or frequencies of administration that can affect compliance.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide novel products and compositions wherein one or more of the above problems and limitations are ameliorated.

In the last decade, there have been reports of the use of antisense oligonucleotides to explore gene function and several reports in the development of nucleic acid based drugs. Antisense oligonucleotides inhibit mRNA translation via a number of alternative ways including destruction of the target mRNA through RNase H recruitment, or interference with RNA processing, nuclear export, folding or ribosome scanning.

Pellegrini et al. attempted to block growth hormone receptor synthesis in the central nervous system by infusing intracerebroventricularly an antisense 18-mer oligonucleotide complementary to a portion of the coding sequence of the rat growth hormone receptor mRNA overlapping the translation initiation codon. J. Neurosci. 1996, 16, 8140-8148.

The current invention as exemplified herein for the first time, demonstrates that an antisense oligonucleotide targeted specifically to the growth hormone receptor reduces a clinical parameter of growth hormone activity, namely serum insulin-like growth factor-I. Importantly, our antisense studies teach the ability to use antisense to growth hormone receptor to reduce serum insulin-like growth factor-I by similar degrees required for the clinical treatment of gigantism or acromegaly. Serum insulin-like growth factor-I levels are elevated in acromegaly patients and reduced at human therapeutic Trovert doses by 50% in both 12 week studies (Trainer et al, The New England J of Med. Apr. 20, 2000) which show a decrease by 1.3 to 2 fold, and in long term greater than 1 year studies as reported by van der Lely et al., Lancet 2001, November 24: 358 (9295) 1754-1759.

Similar levels of reduction of serum insulin-like growth factor-I are also reported with octreotide in 15 month clinical trials of diabetic retinopathy (Grant et al, Supra) and in clinical trials in diabetic nephropathy (Serri et al, supra). Similar levels of reduction of 20-50% is also sufficient to prevent the growth of certain cancer in animal models (Friend, supra).

The present invention teaches for the first time that growth hormone receptor antisense can achieve human and animal equivalent therapeutic outcomes. It teaches that antisense to the mRNA of one component of the growth hormone/insulin-like growth factor-I axis, namely growth hormone receptor, can affect another parameter in the axis, e.g., IGF-I. Importantly, it teaches that antisense targeting any other target in the growth hormone/insulin-like growth factor-I axis is potentially capable of achieving therapeutic levels in conditions dependent on excess growth hormone or insulin-like growth factor-I levels.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to compounds, especially nucleic acid and nucleic acid-like oligomers, which are targeted to a nucleic acid encoding growth hormone receptor, and which modulate growth hormone signaling or the growth hormone/insulin-like growth factor-I axis, particularly the expression of growth hormone receptor and/or insulin-like growth factor-I. Further provided are methods of screening for modulators of growth hormone receptor and/or insulin-like growth factor-I and methods of modulating the expression of growth hormone receptor and/or insulin-like growth factor-I in cells, tissues or animals comprising contacting said cells, tissues or animals with one or more of the compounds or compositions of the invention. Diagnostic methods and kits are also provided. Methods of treating an animal, particularly a human, suspected of having or being prone to a disease or condition associated with growth hormone signaling or the growth hormone/insulin-like growth factor-I axis, particularly the expression of growth hormone receptor and/or insulin-like growth factor-I, are also set forth herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION A. Overview of the Invention

The present invention employs compounds, preferably oligonucleotides and similar species for use in modulating the function or effect of nucleic acid molecules encoding growth hormone receptor. This is accomplished by providing oligonucleotides which specifically hybridize with one or more nucleic acid molecules encoding growth hormone receptor. As used herein, the terms “target nucleic acid” and “nucleic acid molecule encoding growth hormone receptor” have been used for convenience to encompass DNA encoding growth hormone receptor, RNA (including pre-mRNA and mRNA or portions thereof (including both coding and noncoding regions), transcribed from such DNA, and also cDNA derived from such RNA. The hybridization of a compound of this invention with its target nucleic acid is generally referred to as “antisense”. Consequently, the preferred mechanism believed to be included in the practice of some preferred embodiments of the invention is referred to herein as “antisense inhibition.” Such antisense inhibition is typically based upon hydrogen bonding-based hybridization of oligonucleotide strands or segments such that at least one strand or segment is cleaved, degraded, or otherwise rendered inoperable. In this regard, it is presently preferred to target specific nucleic acid molecules and their functions for such antisense inhibition.

The functions of DNA to be interfered with can include replication and transcription. Replication and transcription, for example, can be from an endogenous cellular template, a vector, a plasmid construct or otherwise. The functions of RNA to be interfered with can include functions such as translocation of the RNA to a site of protein translation, translocation of the RNA to sites within the cell which are distant from the site of RNA synthesis, translation of protein from the RNA, splicing of the RNA to yield one or more RNA species, and catalytic activity or complex formation involving the RNA which may be engaged in or facilitated by the RNA. One preferred result of such interference with target nucleic acid function is modulation of the expression of growth hormone receptor. In the context of the present invention, “modulation” and “modulation of expression” mean either an increase (stimulation) or a decrease (inhibition) in the amount or levels of a nucleic acid molecule encoding the gene, e.g., DNA or RNA. Inhibition is often the preferred form of modulation of expression and mRNA is often a preferred target nucleic acid.

In the context of this invention, “hybridization” means the pairing of complementary strands of oligomeric compounds. In the present invention, the preferred mechanism of pairing involves hydrogen bonding, which may be Watson-Crick, Hoogsteen or reversed Hoogsteen hydrogen bonding, between complementary nucleoside or nucleotide bases (nucleobases) of the strands of oligomeric compounds. For example, adenine and thymine are complementary nucleobases which pair through the formation of hydrogen bonds. Hybridization can occur under varying circumstances.

An antisense compound is specifically hybridizable when binding of the compound to the target nucleic acid interferes with the normal function of the target nucleic acid to cause a loss of activity, and there is a sufficient degree of complementarity to avoid non-specific binding of the antisense compound to non-target nucleic acid sequences under conditions in which specific binding is desired, i.e., under physiological conditions in the case of in vivo assays or therapeutic treatment, and under conditions in which assays are performed in the case of in vitro assays.

In the present invention the phrase “stringent hybridization conditions” or “stringent conditions” refers to conditions under which a compound of the invention will hybridize to its target sequence, but to a minimal number of other sequences. Stringent conditions are sequence-dependent and will be different in different circumstances and in the context of this invention, “stringent conditions” under which oligomeric compounds hybridize to a target sequence are determined by the nature and composition of the oligomeric compounds and the assays in which they are being investigated.

“Complementary,” as used herein, refers to the capacity for precise pairing between two nucleobases of an oligomeric compound. For example, if a nucleobase at a certain position of an oligonucleotide (an oligomeric compound), is capable of hydrogen bonding with a nucleobase at a certain position of a target nucleic acid, said target nucleic acid being a DNA, RNA, or oligonucleotide molecule, then the position of hydrogen bonding between the oligonucleotide and the target nucleic acid is considered to be a complementary position. The oligonucleotide and the further DNA, RNA, or oligonucleotide molecule are complementary to each other when a sufficient number of complementary positions in each molecule are occupied by nucleobases which can hydrogen bond with each other. Thus, “specifically hybridizable” and “complementary” are terms which are used to indicate a sufficient degree of precise pairing or complementarity over a sufficient number of nucleobases such that stable and specific binding occurs between the oligonucleotide and a target nucleic acid.

It is understood in the art that the sequence of an antisense compound need not be 100% complementary to that of its target nucleic acid to be specifically hybridizable. Moreover, an oligonucleotide may hybridize over one or more segments such that intervening or adjacent segments are not involved in the hybridization event (e.g., a loop structure or hairpin structure). It is preferred that the antisense compounds of the present invention comprise at least 70% sequence complementarity to a target region within the target nucleic acid, more preferably that they comprise 90% sequence complementarity and even more preferably comprise 95% sequence complementarity to the target region within the target nucleic acid sequence to which they are targeted. For example, an antisense compound in which 18 of 20 nucleobases of the antisense compound are complementary to a target region, and would therefore specifically hybridize, would represent 90 percent complementarity. In this example, the remaining noncomplementary nucleobases may be clustered or interspersed with complementary nucleobases and need not be contiguous to each other or to complementary nucleobases. As such, an antisense compound which is 18 nucleobases in length having 4 (four) noncomplementary nucleobases which are flanked by two regions of complete complementarity with the target nucleic acid would have 77.8% overall complementarity with the target nucleic acid and would thus fall within the scope of the present invention. Percent complementarity of an antisense compound with a region of a target nucleic acid can be determined routinely using BLAST programs (basic local alignment search tools) and PowerBLAST programs known in the art (Altschul et al., J. Mol. Biol., 1990, 215, 403-410; Zhang and Madden, Genome Res., 1997, 7, 649-656).

B. Compounds of the Invention

According to the present invention, compounds include antisense oligomeric compounds, antisense oligonucleotides, ribozymes, external guide sequence (EGS) oligonucleotides, alternate splicers, primers, probes, and other oligomeric compounds which hybridize to at least a portion of the target nucleic acid. As such, these compounds may be introduced in the form of single-stranded, double-stranded, circular or hairpin oligomeric compounds and may contain structural elements such as internal or terminal bulges or loops. Once introduced to a system, the compounds of the invention may elicit the action of one or more enzymes or structural proteins to effect modification of the target nucleic acid. One non-limiting example of such an enzyme is RNAse H, a cellular endonuclease which cleaves the RNA strand of an RNA:DNA duplex. It is known in the art that single-stranded antisense compounds which are “DNA-like” elicit RNAse H. Activation of RNase H, therefore, results in cleavage of the RNA target, thereby greatly enhancing the efficiency of oligonucleotide-mediated inhibition of gene expression. Similar roles have been postulated for other ribonucleases such as those in the RNase III and ribonuclease L family of enzymes.

While the preferred form of antisense compound is a single-stranded antisense oligonucleotide, in many species the introduction of double-stranded structures, such as double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) molecules, has been shown to induce potent and specific antisense-mediated reduction of the function of a gene or its associated gene products. This phenomenon occurs in both plants and animals and is believed to have an evolutionary connection to viral defense and transposon silencing.

The first evidence that dsRNA could lead to gene silencing in animals came in 1995 from work in the nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans (Guo and Kempheus, Cell, 1995, 81, 611-620). Montgomery et al. have shown that the primary interference effects of dsRNA are posttranscriptional (Montgomery et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 1998, 95, 15502-15507). The posttranscriptional antisense mechanism defined in Caenorhabditis elegans resulting from exposure to double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) has since been designated RNA interference (RNAi). This term has been generalized to mean antisense-mediated gene silencing involving the introduction of dsRNA leading to the sequence-specific reduction of endogenous targeted mRNA levels (Fire et al., Nature, 1998, 391, 806-811). Recently, it has been shown that it is, in fact, the single-stranded RNA oligomers of antisense polarity of the dsRNAs which are the potent inducers of RNAi (Tijsterman et al., Science, 2002, 295, 694-697).

In the context of this invention, the term “oligomeric compound” refers to a polymer or oligomer comprising a plurality of monomeric units. In the context of this invention, the term “oligonucleotide” refers to an oligomer or polymer of ribonucleic acid (RNA) or deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) or mimetics, chimeras, analogs and homologs thereof. This term includes oligonucleotides composed of naturally occurring nucleobases, sugars and covalent internucleoside (backbone) linkages as well as oligonucleotides having non-naturally occurring portions which function similarly. Such modified or substituted oligonucleotides are often preferred over native forms because of desirable properties such as, for example, enhanced cellular uptake, enhanced affinity for a target nucleic acid and increased stability in the presence of nucleases.

While oligonucleotides are a preferred form of the compounds of this invention, the present invention comprehends other families of compounds as well, including but not limited to oligonucleotide analogs and mimetics such as those described herein.

The compounds in accordance with this invention preferably comprise from about 8 to about 80 nucleobases (i.e. from about 8 to about 80 linked nucleosides). One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the invention embodies compounds of 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, or 80 nucleobases in length.

In one preferred embodiment, the compounds of the invention are 12 to 50 nucleobases in length. One having ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that this embodies compounds of 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, or 50 nucleobases in length.

In another preferred embodiment, the compounds of the invention are 15 to 30 nucleobases in length. One having ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that this embodies compounds of 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, or 30 nucleobases in length.

Particularly preferred compounds are oligonucleotides from about 12 to about 50 nucleobases, even more preferably those comprising from about 15 to about 30 nucleobases.

Antisense compounds 8-80 nucleobases in length comprising a stretch of at least eight (8) consecutive nucleobases selected from within the illustrative antisense compounds are considered to be suitable antisense compounds as well.

Exemplary preferred antisense compounds include oligonucleotide sequences that comprise at least the 8 consecutive nucleobases from the 5′-terminus of one of the illustrative preferred antisense compounds (the remaining nucleobases being a consecutive stretch of the same oligonucleotide beginning immediately upstream of the 5′-terminus of the antisense compound which is specifically hybridizable to the target nucleic acid and continuing until the oligonucleotide contains about 8 to about 80 nucleobases). Similarly preferred antisense compounds are represented by oligonucleotide sequences that comprise at least the 8 consecutive nucleobases from the 3′-terminus of one of the illustrative preferred antisense compounds (the remaining nucleobases being a consecutive stretch of the same oligonucleotide beginning immediately downstream of the 3′-terminus of the antisense compound which is specifically hybridizable to the target nucleic acid and continuing until the oligonucleotide contains about 8 to about 80 nucleobases). One having skill in the art armed with the preferred antisense compounds illustrated herein will be able, without undue experimentation, to identify further preferred antisense compounds.

C. Targets of the Invention

“Targeting” an antisense compound to a particular nucleic acid molecule, in the context of this invention, can be a multistep process. The process usually begins with the identification of a target nucleic acid whose function is to be modulated. This target nucleic acid may be, for example, a cellular gene (or mRNA transcribed from the gene) whose expression is associated with a particular disorder or disease state, or a nucleic acid molecule from an infectious agent. In the present invention, the target nucleic acid encodes growth hormone receptor.

The targeting process usually also includes determination of at least one target region, segment, or site within the target nucleic acid for the antisense interaction to occur such that the desired effect, e.g., modulation of expression, will result. Within the context of the present invention, the term “region” is defined as a portion of the target nucleic acid having at least one identifiable structure, function, or characteristic. Within regions of target nucleic acids are segments. “Segments” are defined as smaller or sub-portions of regions within a target nucleic acid. “Sites,” as used in the present invention, are defined as positions within a target nucleic acid.

Since, as is known in the art, the translation initiation codon is typically 5′-AUG (in transcribed mRNA molecules; 5′-ATG in the corresponding DNA molecule), the translation initiation codon is also referred to as the “AUG codon,” the “start codon” or the “AUG start codon”. A minority of genes have a translation initiation codon having the RNA sequence 5′-GUG, 5′-UUG or 5′-CUG, and 5′-AUA, 5′-ACG and 5′-CUG have been shown to function in vivo. Thus, the terms “translation initiation codon” and “start codon” can encompass many codon sequences, even though the initiator amino acid in each instance is typically methionine (in eukaryotes) or formylmethionine (in prokaryotes). It is also known in the art that eukaryotic and prokaryotic genes may have two or more alternative start codons, any one of which may be preferentially utilized for translation initiation in a particular cell type or tissue, or under a particular set of conditions. In the context of the invention, “start codon” and “translation initiation codon” refer to the codon or codons that are used in vivo to initiate translation of an mRNA transcribed from a gene encoding growth hormone receptor, regardless of the sequence(s) of such codons. It is also known in the art that a translation termination codon (or “stop codon”) of a gene may have one of three sequences, i.e., 5′-UAA, 5′-UAG and 5′-UGA (the corresponding DNA sequences are 5′-TAA, 5′-TAG and 5′-TGA, respectively).

The terms “start codon region” and “translation initiation codon region” refer to a portion of such an mRNA or gene that encompasses from about 25 to about 50 contiguous nucleotides in either direction (i.e., 5′ or 3′) from a translation initiation codon. Similarly, the terms “stop codon region” and “translation termination codon region” refer to a portion of such an mRNA or gene that encompasses from about 25 to about 50 contiguous nucleotides in either direction (i.e., 5′ or 3′) from a translation termination codon. Consequently, the “start codon region” (or “translation initiation codon region”) and the “stop codon region” (or “translation termination codon region”) are all regions which may be targeted effectively with the antisense compounds of the present invention.

The open reading frame (ORF) or “coding region,” which is known in the art to refer to the region between the translation initiation codon and the translation termination codon, is also a region which may be targeted effectively. Within the context of the present invention, a preferred region is the intragenic region encompassing the translation initiation or termination codon of the open reading frame (ORF) of a gene.

Other target regions include the 5′ untranslated region (5′UTR), known in the art to refer to the portion of an mRNA in the 5′ direction from the translation initiation codon, and thus including nucleotides between the 5′ cap site and the translation initiation codon of an mRNA (or corresponding nucleotides on the gene), and the 3′ untranslated region (3′UTR), known in the art to refer to the portion of an mRNA in the 3′ direction from the translation termination codon, and thus including nucleotides between the translation termination codon and 3′ end of an mRNA (or corresponding nucleotides on the gene). The 5′ cap site of an mRNA comprises an N7-methylated guanosine residue joined to the 5′-most residue of the mRNA via a 5′-5′ triphosphate linkage. The 5′ cap region of an mRNA is considered to include the 5′ cap structure itself as well as the first 50 nucleotides adjacent to the cap site. It is also preferred to target the 5′ cap region.

Although some eukaryotic mRNA transcripts are directly translated, many contain one or more regions, known as “introns,” which are excised from a transcript before it is translated. The remaining (and therefore translated) regions are known as “exons” and are spliced together to form a continuous mRNA sequence. Targeting splice sites, i.e., intron-exon junctions or exon-intron junctions, may also be particularly useful in situations where aberrant splicing is implicated in disease, or where an overproduction of a particular splice product is implicated in disease. Aberrant fusion junctions due to rearrangements or deletions are also preferred target sites. mRNA transcripts produced via the process of splicing of two (or more) mRNAs from different gene sources are known as “fusion transcripts”. It is also known that introns can be effectively targeted using antisense compounds targeted to, for example, DNA or pre-mRNA.

It is also known in the art that alternative RNA transcripts can be produced from the same genomic region of DNA. These alternative transcripts are generally known as “variants”. More specifically, “pre-mRNA variants” are transcripts produced from the same genomic DNA that differ from other transcripts produced from the same genomic DNA in either their start or stop position and contain both intronic and exonic sequence.

Upon excision of one or more exon or intron regions, or portions thereof during splicing, pre-mRNA variants produce smaller “mRNA variants”. Consequently, mRNA variants are processed pre-mRNA variants and each unique pre-mRNA variant must always produce a unique mRNA variant as a result of splicing. These mRNA variants are also known as “alternative splice variants”. If no splicing of the pre-mRNA variant occurs then the pre-mRNA variant is identical to the mRNA variant.

In mouse, rat and monkey, growth hormone binding protein, which is the soluble shortened form of growth hormone receptor, is produced by alternative splicing of the growth hormone receptor primary transcript. In some embodiments it may be preferred to target regions of the transcript which are present in both the growth hormone receptor transcript and in the shorter growth hormone binding protein transcript. In other embodiments it may be preferable to target regions of the mRNA which are only present in the longer growth hormone receptor transcript. In humans, cows, and pigs (among others), no alternative RNA splicing is apparent but instead the shorter growth hormone binding protein is produced by proteolysis of the growth hormone receptor. It will be understood that in the context of this invention, “nucleic acid encoding growth hormone receptor” thus includes nucleic acid encoding growth hormone binding protein.”

It is also known in the art that variants can be produced through the use of alternative signals to start or stop transcription and that pre-mRNAs and mRNAs can possess more that one start codon or stop codon. Variants that originate from a pre-mRNA or mRNA that use alternative start codons are known as “alternative start variants” of that pre-mRNA or mRNA. Those transcripts that use an alternative stop codon are known as “alternative stop variants” of that pre-mRNA or mRNA. One specific type of alternative stop variant is the “polyA variant” in which the multiple transcripts produced result from the alternative selection of one of the “polyA stop signals” by the transcription machinery, thereby producing transcripts that terminate at unique polyA sites. Within the context of the invention, the types of variants described herein are also preferred target nucleic acids.

The growth hormone receptor mRNA has alternative 5′ untranslated regions and one or more of these may be preferred for targeting.

The locations on the target nucleic acid to which the preferred antisense compounds hybridize are hereinbelow referred to as “preferred target segments.” As used herein the term “preferred target segment” is defined as at least an 8-nucleobase portion of a target region to which an active antisense compound is targeted. While not wishing to be bound by theory, it is presently believed that these target segments represent portions of the target nucleic acid which are accessible for hybridization.

While the specific sequences of certain preferred target segments are set forth herein, one of skill in the art will recognize that these serve to illustrate and describe particular embodiments within the scope of the present invention. Additional preferred target segments may be identified by one having ordinary skill.

Target segments 8-80 nucleobases in length comprising a stretch of at least eight (8) consecutive nucleobases selected from within the illustrative preferred target segments are considered to be suitable for targeting as well.

Target segments can include DNA or RNA sequences that comprise at least the 8 consecutive nucleobases from the 5′-terminus of one of the illustrative preferred target segments (the remaining nucleobases being a consecutive stretch of the same DNA or RNA beginning immediately upstream of the 5′-terminus of the target segment and continuing until the DNA or RNA contains about 8 to about 80 nucleobases). Similarly preferred target segments are represented by DNA or RNA sequences that comprise at least the 8 consecutive nucleobases from the 3′-terminus of one of the illustrative preferred target segments (the remaining nucleobases being a consecutive stretch of the same DNA or RNA beginning immediately downstream of the 3′-terminus of the target segment and continuing until the DNA or RNA contains about 8 to about 80 nucleobases). One having skill in the art armed with the preferred target segments illustrated herein will be able, without undue experimentation, to identify further preferred target segments.

Once one or more target regions, segments or sites have been identified, antisense compounds are chosen which are sufficiently complementary to the target, i.e., hybridize sufficiently well and with sufficient specificity, to give the desired effect.

D. Screening and Target Validation

In a further embodiment, the “preferred target segments” identified herein may be employed in a screen for additional compounds that modulate the expression of growth hormone receptor. “Modulators” are those compounds that decrease or increase the expression of a nucleic acid molecule encoding growth hormone receptor and which comprise at least an 8-nucleobase portion which is complementary to a preferred target segment. The screening method comprises the steps of contacting a preferred target segment of a nucleic acid molecule encoding growth hormone receptor with one or more candidate modulators, and selecting for one or more candidate modulators which decrease or increase the expression of a nucleic acid molecule encoding growth hormone receptor. Once it is shown that the candidate modulator or modulators are capable of modulating (e.g. either decreasing or increasing) the expression of a nucleic acid molecule encoding growth hormone receptor, the modulator may then be employed in further investigative studies of the function of growth hormone receptor, or for use as a research, diagnostic, or therapeutic agent in accordance with the present invention.

The preferred target segments of the present invention may be also be combined with their respective complementary antisense compounds of the present invention to form stabilized double-stranded (duplexed) oligonucleotides.

Such double stranded oligonucleotide moieties have been shown in the art to modulate target expression and regulate translation as well as RNA processsing via an antisense mechanism. Moreover, the double-stranded moieties may be subject to chemical modifications (Fire et al., Nature, 1998, 391, 806-811; Timmons and Fire, Nature 1998, 395, 854; Timmons et al., Gene, 2001, 263, 103-112; Tabara et al., Science, 1998, 282, 430-431; Montgomery et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 1998, 95, 15502-15507; Tuschl et al., Genes Dev., 1999, 13, 3191-3197; Elbashir et al., Nature, 2001, 411, 494-498; Elbashir et al., Genes Dev. 2001, 15, 188-200). For example, such double-stranded moieties have been shown to inhibit the target by the classical hybridization of antisense strand of the duplex to the target, thereby triggering enzymatic degradation of the target (Tijsterman et al., Science, 2002, 295, 694-697).

The compounds of the present invention can also be applied in the areas of drug discovery and target validation. The present invention comprehends the use of the compounds and preferred target segments identified herein in drug discovery efforts to elucidate relationships that exist between growth hormone receptor and a disease state, phenotype, or condition. These methods include detecting or modulating growth hormone receptor comprising contacting a sample, tissue, cell, or organism with the compounds of the present invention, measuring the nucleic acid or protein level of growth hormone receptor and/or a related phenotypic or chemical endpoint at some time after treatment, and optionally comparing the measured value to a non-treated sample or sample treated with a further compound of the invention. These methods can also be performed in parallel or in combination with other experiments to determine the function of unknown genes for the process of target validation or to determine the validity of a particular gene product as a target for treatment or prevention of a particular disease, condition, or phenotype.

E. Kits, Research Reagents, Diagnostics, and Therapeutics

The compounds of the present invention can be utilized for diagnostics, therapeutics, prophylaxis and as research reagents and kits. Furthermore, antisense oligonucleotides, which are able to inhibit gene expression with exquisite specificity, are often used by those of ordinary skill to elucidate the function of particular genes or to distinguish between functions of various members of a biological pathway.

For use in kits and diagnostics, the compounds of the present invention, either alone or in combination with other compounds or therapeutics, can be used as tools in differential and/or combinatorial analyses to elucidate expression patterns of a portion or the entire complement of genes expressed within cells and tissues.

As one nonlimiting example, expression patterns within cells or tissues treated with one or more antisense compounds are compared to control cells or tissues not treated with antisense compounds and the patterns produced are analyzed for differential levels of gene expression as they pertain, for example, to disease association, signaling pathway, cellular localization, expression level, size, structure or function of the genes examined. These analyses can be performed on stimulated or unstimulated cells and in the presence or absence of other compounds which affect expression patterns.

Examples of methods of gene expression analysis known in the art include DNA arrays or microarrays (Brazma and Vilo, FEBS Lett., 2000, 480, 17-24; Celis, et al., FEBS Lett., 2000, 480, 2-16), SAGE (serial analysis of gene expression)(Madden, et al., Drug Discov. Today, 2000, 5, 415-425), READS (restriction enzyme amplification of digested cDNAs) (Prashar and Weissman, Methods Enzymol., 1999, 303, 258-72), TOGA (total gene expression analysis) (Sutcliffe, et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 2000, 97, 1976-81), protein arrays and proteomics (Celis, et al., FEBS Lett., 2000, 480, 2-16; Jungblut, et al., Electrophoresis, 1999, 20, 2100-10), expressed sequence tag (EST) sequencing (Celis, et al., FEBS Lett., 2000, 480, 2-16; Larsson, et al., J. Biotechnol., 2000, 80, 143-57), subtractive RNA fingerprinting (SuRF) (Fuchs, et al., Anal. Biochem., 2000, 286, 91-98; Larson, et al., Cytometry, 2000, 41, 203-208), subtractive cloning, differential display (DD) (Jurecic and Belmont, Curr. Opin. Microbiol., 2000, 3, 316-21), comparative genomic hybridization (Carulli, et al., J. Cell Biochem. Suppl., 1998, 31, 286-96), FISH (fluorescent in situ hybridization) techniques (Going and Gusterson, Eur. J. Cancer, 1999, 35, 1895-904) and mass spectrometry methods (To, Comb. Chem. High Throughput Screen, 2000, 3, 235-41).

The compounds of the invention are useful for research and diagnostics, because these compounds hybridize to nucleic acids encoding growth hormone receptor. For example, oligonucleotides that are shown to hybridize with such efficiency and under such conditions as disclosed herein as to be effective growth hormone receptor inhibitors will also be effective primers or probes under conditions favoring gene amplification or detection, respectively. These primers and probes are useful in methods requiring the specific detection of nucleic acid molecules encoding growth hormone receptor and in the amplification of said nucleic acid molecules for detection or for use in further studies of growth hormone receptor. Hybridization of the antisense oligonucleotides, particularly the primers and probes, of the invention with a nucleic acid encoding growth hormone receptor can be detected by means known in the art. Such means may include conjugation of an enzyme to the oligonucleotide, radiolabelling of the oligonucleotide or any other suitable detection means. Kits using such detection means for detecting the level of growth hormone receptor in a sample may also be prepared.

The specificity and sensitivity of antisense is also harnessed by those of skill in the art for therapeutic uses. Antisense compounds have been employed as therapeutic moieties in the treatment of disease states in animals, including humans. Antisense oligonucleotide drugs, including ribozymes, have been safely and effectively administered to humans and numerous clinical trials are presently underway. It is thus established that antisense compounds can be useful therapeutic modalities that can be configured to be useful in treatment regimes for the treatment of cells, tissues and animals.

The compounds of the present invention have been shown to reduce expression of growth hormone receptor and to reduce levels of IGF-I. These compounds are therefore believed to be useful for prevention, delay or treatment of conditions associated with growth hormone receptor or with the growth hormone/insulin-like growth factor-I axis, including acromegaly, gigantism, age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, diabetic nephropathy, diabetes, arthritis and growth hormone and IGF-I dependent tumors.

For therapeutics, an animal, preferably a human, suspected of having a disease or disorder which can be treated by modulating the expression of growth hormone receptor is treated by administering antisense compounds in accordance with this invention. For example, in one non-limiting embodiment, the methods comprise the step of administering to the animal in need of treatment, a therapeutically effective amount of a growth hormone receptor inhibitor. The growth hormone receptor inhibitors of the present invention effectively inhibit the activity of the growth hormone receptor protein or inhibit the expression of the growth hormone receptor protein. In one embodiment, the activity or expression of growth hormone receptor in an animal is inhibited by about 10%. Preferably, the activity or expression of growth hormone receptor in an animal is inhibited by about 30%. More preferably, the activity or expression of growth hormone receptor in an animal is inhibited by 45% or more.

For example, the reduction of the expression of growth hormone receptor may be measured in serum, adipose tissue, liver or any other body fluid, tissue or organ of the animal. Preferably, the cells contained within said fluids, tissues or organs being analyzed contain a nucleic acid molecule encoding growth hormone receptor protein and/or the growth hormone receptor protein itself.

The compounds of the invention can be utilized in pharmaceutical compositions by adding an effective amount of a compound to a suitable pharmaceutically acceptable diluent or carrier. Use of the compounds and methods of the invention may also be useful prophylactically.

F. Modifications

As is known in the art, a nucleoside is a base-sugar combination. The base portion of the nucleoside is normally a heterocyclic base. The two most common classes of such heterocyclic bases are the purines and the pyrimidines. Nucleotides are nucleosides that further include a phosphate group covalently linked to the sugar portion of the nucleoside. For those nucleosides that include a pentofuranosyl sugar, the phosphate group can be linked to either the 2′, 3′ or 5′ hydroxyl moiety of the sugar. In forming oligonucleotides, the phosphate groups covalently link adjacent nucleosides to one another to form a linear polymeric compound. In turn, the respective ends of this linear polymeric compound can be further joined to form a circular compound, however, linear compounds are generally preferred. In addition, linear compounds may have internal nucleobase complementarity and may therefore fold in a manner as to produce a fully or partially double-stranded compound. Within oligonucleotides, the phosphate groups are commonly referred to as forming the internucleoside backbone of the oligonucleotide. The normal linkage or backbone of RNA and DNA is a 3′ to 5′ phosphodiester linkage.

Modified Internucleoside Linkages (Backbones)

Specific examples of preferred antisense compounds useful in this invention include oligonucleotides containing modified backbones or non-natural internucleoside linkages. As defined in this specification, oligonucleotides having modified backbones include those that retain a phosphorus atom in the backbone and those that do not have a phosphorus atom in the backbone. For the purposes of this specification, and as sometimes referenced in the art, modified oligonucleotides that do not have a phosphorus atom in their internucleoside backbone can also be considered to be oligonucleosides.

Preferred modified oligonucleotide backbones containing a phosphorus atom therein include, for example, phosphorothioates, chiral phosphorothioates, phosphorodithioates, phosphotriesters, aminoalkylphosphotriesters, methyl and other alkyl phosphonates including 3′-alkylene phosphonates, 5′-alkylene phosphonates and chiral phosphonates, phosphinates, phosphoramidates including 3′-amino phosphoramidate and aminoalkylphosphoramidates, thionophosphoramidates, thionoalkylphosphonates, thionoalkylphosphotriesters, selenophosphates and boranophosphates having normal 3′-5′ linkages, 2′-5′ linked analogs of these, and those having inverted polarity wherein one or more internucleotide linkages is a 3′ to 3′, 5′ to 5′ or 2′ to 2′ linkage. Preferred oligonucleotides having inverted polarity comprise a single 3′ to 3′ linkage at the 3′-most internucleotide linkage i.e. a single inverted nucleoside residue which may be abasic (the nucleobase is missing or has a hydroxyl group in place thereof). Various salts, mixed salts and free acid forms are also included.

Representative United States patents that teach the preparation of the above phosphorus-containing linkages include, but are not limited to, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,687,808; 4,469,863; 4,476,301; 5,023,243; 5,177,196; 5,188,897; 5,264,423; 5,276,019; 5,278,302; 5,286,717; 5,321,131; 5,399,676; 5,405,939; 5,453,496; 5,455,233; 5,466,677; 5,476,925; 5,519,126; 5,536,821; 5,541,306; 5,550,111; 5,563,253; 5,571,799; 5,587,361; 5,194,599; 5,565,555; 5,527,899; 5,721,218; 5,672,697 and 5,625,050, certain of which are commonly owned with this application, and each of which is herein incorporated by reference.

Preferred modified oligonucleotide backbones that do not include a phosphorus atom therein have backbones that are formed by short chain alkyl or cycloalkyl internucleoside linkages, mixed heteroatom and alkyl or cycloalkyl internucleoside linkages, or one or more short chain heteroatomic or heterocyclic internucleoside linkages. These include those having morpholino linkages (formed in part from the sugar portion of a nucleoside); siloxane backbones; sulfide, sulfoxide and sulfone backbones; formacetyl and thioformacetyl backbones; methylene formacetyl and thioformacetyl backbones; riboacetyl backbones; alkene containing backbones; sulfamate backbones; methyleneimino and methylenehydrazino backbones; sulfonate and sulfonamide backbones; amide backbones; and others having mixed N, O, S and CH₂ component parts.

Representative United States patents that teach the preparation of the above oligonucleosides include, but are not limited to, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,034,506; 5,166,315; 5,185,444; 5,214,134; 5,216,141; 5,235,033; 5,264,562; 5,264,564; 5,405,938; 5,434,257; 5,466,677; 5,470,967; 5,489,677; 5,541,307; 5,561,225; 5,596,086; 5,602,240; 5,610,289; 5,602,240; 5,608,046; 5,610,289; 5,618,704; 5,623,070; 5,663,312; 5,633,360; 5,677,437; 5,792,608; 5,646,269 and 5,677,439, certain of which are commonly owned with this application, and each of which is herein incorporated by reference.

Modified Sugar and Internucleoside Linkages-Mimetics

In other preferred oligonucleotide mimetics, both the sugar and the internucleoside linkage (i.e. the backbone), of the nucleotide units are replaced with novel groups. The nucleobase units are maintained for hybridization with an appropriate target nucleic acid. One such compound, an oligonucleotide mimetic that has been shown to have excellent hybridization properties, is referred to as a peptide nucleic acid (PNA). In PNA compounds, the sugar-backbone of an oligonucleotide is replaced with an amide containing backbone, in particular an aminoethylglycine backbone. The nucleobases are retained and are bound directly or indirectly to aza nitrogen atoms of the amide portion of the backbone. Representative United States patents that teach the preparation of PNA compounds include, but are not limited to, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,539,082; 5,714,331; and 5,719,262, each of which is herein incorporated by reference. Further teaching of PNA compounds can be found in Nielsen et al., Science, 1991, 254, 1497-1500.

Preferred embodiments of the invention are oligonucleotides with phosphorothioate backbones and oligonucleosides with heteroatom backbones, and in particular —CH₂—NH—O—CH₂—, —CH₂—N(CH₃)—O—CH₂— [known as a methylene (methylimino) or MMI backbone], —CH₂—O—N(CH₃)—CH₂—, —CH₂—N(CH₃)—N(CH₃)—CH₂— and —O—N(CH₃)—CH₂—CH₂— [wherein the native phosphodiester backbone is represented as —O—P—O—CH₂—] of the above referenced U.S. Pat. No. 5,489,677, and the amide backbones of the above referenced U.S. Pat. No. 5,602,240. Also preferred are oligonucleotides having morpholino backbone structures of the above-referenced U.S. Pat. No. 5,034,506.

Modified Sugars

Modified oligonucleotides may also contain one or more substituted sugar moieties. Preferred oligonucleotides comprise one of the following at the 2′ position: OH; F; O-, S-, or N-alkyl; O-, S-, or N-alkenyl; O-, S- or N-alkynyl; or O-alkyl-O-alkyl, wherein the alkyl, alkenyl and alkynyl may be substituted or unsubstituted C₁ to C₁₀ alkyl or C₂ to C₁₀ alkenyl and alkynyl. Particularly preferred are O[(CH₂)_(n)O]_(m)CH₃, O(CH₂)_(n)OCH₃, O(CH₂)_(n)NH₂, O(CH₂)_(n)CH₃, O(CH₂)_(n)ONH₂, and O(CH₂)_(n)ON[(CH₂)_(n)CH₃]₂, where n and m are from 1 to about 10. Other preferred oligonucleotides comprise one of the following at the 2′ position: C₁ to C₁₀ lower alkyl, substituted lower alkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl, alkaryl, aralkyl, O-alkaryl or O-aralkyl, SH, SCH₃, OCN, Cl, Br, CN, CF₃, OCF₃, SOCH₃, SO₂CH₃, ONO₂, NO₂, N₃, NH₂, heterocycloalkyl, heterocycloalkaryl, aminoalkylamino, polyalkylamino, substituted silyl, an RNA cleaving group, a reporter group, an intercalator, a group for improving the pharmacokinetic properties of an oligonucleotide, or a group for improving the pharmacodynamic properties of an oligonucleotide, and other substituents having similar properties. A preferred modification includes 2′-methoxyethoxy (2′-O—CH₂CH₂OCH₃, also known as 2′-O-(2-methoxyethyl) or 2′-MOE) (Martin et al., Helv. Chim. Acta, 1995, 78, 486-504) i.e., an alkoxyalkoxy group. A further preferred modification includes 2′-dimethylaminooxyethoxy, i.e., a O(CH₂)₂ON(CH₃)₂ group, also known as 2′-DMAOE, as described in examples hereinbelow, and 2′-dimethylaminoethoxyethoxy (also known in the art as 2′-O-dimethyl-amino-ethoxy-ethyl or 2′-DMAEOE), i.e., 2′—O—CH₂—O—CH₂—N(CH₃)₂, also described in examples hereinbelow.

Other preferred modifications include 2′-methoxy (2′-O—CH₃), 2′-aminopropoxy (2′-OCH₂CH₂CH₂NH₂), 2′-allyl (2′-CH₂—CH═CH₂), 2′-O-allyl (2′-O—CH₂—CH═CH₂) and 2′-fluoro (2′-F). The 2′-modification may be in the arabino (up) position or ribo (down) position. A preferred 2′-arabino modification is 2′-F. Similar modifications may also be made at other positions on the oligonucleotide, particularly the 3′ position of the sugar on the 3′ terminal nucleotide or in 2′-5′ linked oligonucleotides and the 5′ position of 5′ terminal nucleotide. Oligonucleotides may also have sugar mimetics such as cyclobutyl moieties in place of the pentofuranosyl sugar. Representative United States patents that teach the preparation of such modified sugar structures include, but are not limited to, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,981,957; 5,118,800; 5,319,080; 5,359,044; 5,393,878; 5,446,137; 5,466,786; 5,514,785; 5,519,134; 5,567,811; 5,576,427; 5,591,722; 5,597,909; 5,610,300; 5,627,053; 5,639,873, 5,646,265; 5,658,873; 5,670,633; 5,792,747; and 5,700,920, certain of which are commonly owned with the instant application, and each of which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.

A further preferred modification of the sugar includes Locked Nucleic Acids (LNAs) in which the 2′-hydroxyl group is linked to the 3′ or 4′ carbon atom of the sugar ring, thereby forming a bicyclic sugar moiety. The linkage is preferably a methylene (—CH₂—)_(n) group bridging the 2′ oxygen atom and the 4′ carbon atom wherein n is 1 or 2. LNAs and preparation thereof are described in WO 98/39352 and WO 99/14226.

Natural and Modified Nucleobases

Oligonucleotides may also include nucleobase (often referred to in the art simply as “base”) modifications or substitutions. As used herein, “unmodified” or “natural” nucleobases include the purine bases adenine (A) and guanine (G), and the pyrimidine bases thymine (T), cytosine (C) and uracil (U). Modified nucleobases include other synthetic and natural nucleobases such as 5-methylcytosine (5-me-C), 5-hydroxymethyl cytosine, xanthine, hypoxanthine, 2-aminoadenine, 6-methyl and other alkyl derivatives of adenine and guanine, 2-propyl and other alkyl derivatives of adenine and guanine, 2-thiouracil, 2-thiothymine and 2-thiocytosine, 5-halouracil and cytosine, 5-propynyl (—C═C—CH₃) uracil and cytosine and other alkynyl derivatives of pyrimidine bases, 6-azo uracil, cytosine and thymine, 5-uracil (pseudouracil), 4-thiouracil, 8-halo, 8-amino, 8-thiol, 8-thioalkyl, 8-hydroxyl and other 8-substituted adenines and guanines, 5-halo particularly 5-bromo, 5-trifluoromethyl and other 5-substituted uracils and cytosines, 7-methylguanine and 7-methyladenine, 2-F-adenine, 2-amino-adenine, 8-azaguanine and 8-azaadenine, 7-deazaguanine and 7-deazaadenine and 3-deazaguanine and 3-deazaadenine. Further modified nucleobases include tricyclic pyrimidines such as phenoxazine cytidine (1H-pyrimido[5,4-b][1,4]benzoxazin-2(3H)-one), phenothiazine cytidine (1H-pyrimido[5,4-b][1,4]benzothiazin-2(3H)-one), G-clamps such as a substituted phenoxazine cytidine (e.g. 9-(2-aminoethoxy)-H-pyrimido[5,4-b][1,4]benzoxazin-2(3H)-one), carbazole cytidine (2H-pyrimido[4,5-b]indol-2-one), pyridoindole cytidine (H-pyrido[3′,2′:4,5]pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidin-2-one). Modified nucleobases may also include those in which the purine or pyrimidine base is replaced with other heterocycles, for example 7-deaza-adenine, 7-deazaguanosine, 2-aminopyridine and 2-pyridone. Further nucleobases include those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,687,808, those disclosed in The Concise Encyclopedia Of Polymer Science And Engineering, pages 858-859, Kroschwitz, J. I., ed. John Wiley & Sons, 1990, those disclosed by Englisch et al., Angewandte Chemie, International Edition, 1991, 30, 613, and those disclosed by Sanghvi, Y. S., Chapter 15, Antisense Research and Applications, pages 289-302, Crooke, S. T. and Lebleu, B., ed., CRC Press, 1993. Certain of these nucleobases are particularly useful for increasing the binding affinity of the compounds of the invention. These include 5-substituted pyrimidines, 6-azapyrimidines and N-2, N-6 and O-6 substituted purines, including 2-aminopropyladenine, 5-propynyluracil and 5-propynylcytosine. 5-methylcytosine substitutions have been shown to increase nucleic acid duplex stability by 0.6-1.2° C. and are presently preferred base substitutions, even more particularly when combined with 2′-O-methoxyethyl sugar modifications.

Representative United States patents that teach the preparation of certain of the above noted modified nucleobases as well as other modified nucleobases include, but are not limited to, the above noted U.S. Pat. No. 3,687,808, as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,845,205; 5,130,302; 5,134,066; 5,175,273; 5,367,066; 5,432,272; 5,457,187; 5,459,255; 5,484,908; 5,502,177; 5,525,711; 5,552,540; 5,587,469; 5,594,121, 5,596,091; 5,614,617; 5,645,985; 5,830,653; 5,763,588; 6,005,096; and 5,681,941, certain of which are commonly owned with the instant application, and each of which is herein incorporated by reference, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,750,692, which is commonly owned with the instant application and also herein incorporated by reference.

Conjugates

Another modification of the oligonucleotides of the invention involves chemically linking to the oligonucleotide one or more moieties or conjugates which enhance the activity, cellular distribution or cellular uptake of the oligonucleotide. These moieties or conjugates can include conjugate groups covalently bound to functional groups such as primary or secondary hydroxyl groups. Conjugate groups of the invention include intercalators, reporter molecules, polyamines, polyamides, polyethylene glycols, polyethers, groups that enhance the pharmacodynamic properties of oligomers, and groups that enhance the pharmacokinetic properties of oligomers. Typical conjugate groups include cholesterols, lipids, phospho-lipids, biotin, phenazine, folate, phenanthridine, anthra-quinone, acridine, fluoresceins, rhodamines, coumarins, and dyes. Groups that enhance the pharmacodynamic properties, in the context of this invention, include groups that improve uptake, enhance resistance to degradation, and/or strengthen sequence-specific hybridization with the target nucleic acid. Groups that enhance the pharmacokinetic properties, in the context of this invention, include groups that improve uptake, distribution, metabolism or excretion of the compounds of the present invention. Representative conjugate groups are disclosed in International Patent Application PCT/US92/09196, filed Oct. 23, 1992, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,287,860, the entire disclosure of which are incorporated herein by reference. Conjugate moieties include but are not limited to lipid moieties such as a cholesterol moiety, cholic acid, a thioether, e.g., hexyl-5-tritylthiol, a thiocholesterol, an aliphatic chain, e.g., dodecandiol or undecyl residues, a phospholipid, e.g., di-hexadecyl-rac-glycerol or triethylammonium 1,2-di-O-hexadecyl-rac-glycero-3-H-phosphonate, a polyamine or a polyethylene glycol chain, or adamantane acetic acid, a palmityl moiety, or an octadecylamine or hexylamino-carbonyl-oxycholesterol moiety. Oligonucleotides of the invention may also be conjugated to active drug substances, for example, aspirin, warfarin, phenyl-butazone, ibuprofen, suprofen, fenbufen, ketoprofen, (S)-(+)-pranoprofen, carprofen, dansylsarcosine, 2,3,5-triiodobenzoic acid, flufenamic acid, folinic acid, a benzothiadiazide, chlorothiazide, a diazepine, indomethicin, a barbiturate, a cephalosporin, a sulfa drug, an antidiabetic, an antibacterial or an antibiotic. Oligonucleotide-drug conjugates and their preparation are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/334,130 (filed Jun. 15, 1999) which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Representative United States patents that teach the preparation of such oligonucleotide conjugates include, but are not limited to, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,828,979; 4,948,882; 5,218,105; 5,525,465; 5,541,313; 5,545,730; 5,552,538; 5,578,717, 5,580,731; 5,580,731; 5,591,584; 5,109,124; 5,118,802; 5,138,045; 5,414,077; 5,486,603; 5,512,439; 5,578,718; 5,608,046; 4,587,044; 4,605,735; 4,667,025; 4,762,779; 4,789,737; 4,824,941; 4,835,263; 4,876,335; 4,904,582; 4,958,013; 5,082,830; 5,112,963; 5,214,136; 5,082,830; 5,112,963; 5,214,136; 5,245,022; 5,254,469; 5,258,506; 5,262,536; 5,272,250; 5,292,873; 5,317,098; 5,371,241, 5,391,723; 5,416,203, 5,451,463; 5,510,475; 5,512,667; 5,514,785; 5,565,552; 5,567,810; 5,574,142; 5,585,481; 5,587,371; 5,595,726; 5,597,696; 5,599,923; 5,599,928 and 5,688,941, certain of which are commonly owned with the instant application, and each of which is herein incorporated by reference.

Chimeric Compounds

It is not necessary for all positions in a given compound to be uniformly modified, and in fact more than one of the aforementioned modifications may be incorporated in a single compound or even at a single nucleoside within an oligonucleotide.

The present invention also includes antisense compounds which are chimeric compounds. “Chimeric” antisense compounds or “chimeras,” in the context of this invention, are antisense compounds, particularly oligonucleotides, which contain two or more chemically distinct regions, each made up of at least one monomer unit, i.e., a nucleotide in the case of an oligonucleotide compound. These oligonucleotides typically contain at least one region wherein the oligonucleotide is modified so as to confer upon the oligonucleotide increased resistance to nuclease degradation, increased cellular uptake, increased stability and/or increased binding affinity for the target nucleic acid. An additional region of the oligonucleotide may serve as a substrate for enzymes capable of cleaving RNA:DNA or RNA:RNA hybrids. By way of example, RNAse H is a cellular endonuclease which cleaves the RNA strand of an RNA:DNA duplex. Activation of RNase H, therefore, results in cleavage of the RNA target, thereby greatly enhancing the efficiency of oligonucleotide-mediated inhibition of gene expression. The cleavage of RNA:RNA hybrids can, in like fashion, be accomplished through the actions of endoribonucleases, such as RNAseL which cleaves both cellular and viral RNA. Cleavage of the RNA target can be routinely detected by gel electrophoresis and, if necessary, associated nucleic acid hybridization techniques known in the art.

Chimeric antisense compounds of the invention may be formed as composite structures of two or more oligonucleotides, modified oligonucleotides, oligonucleosides and/or oligonucleotide mimetics as described above. Such compounds have also been referred to in the art as hybrids or gapmers. Representative United States patents that teach the preparation of such hybrid structures include, but are not limited to, U.S.: 5,013,830; 5,149,797; 5,220,007; 5,256,775; 5,366,878; 5,403,711; 5,491,133; 5,565,350; 5,623,065; 5,652,355; 5,652,356; and 5,700,922, certain of which are commonly owned with the instant application, and each of which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.

G. Formulations

The compounds of the invention may also be admixed, encapsulated, conjugated or otherwise associated with other molecules, molecule structures or mixtures of compounds, as for example, liposomes, receptor-targeted molecules, oral, rectal, topical or other formulations, for assisting in uptake, distribution and/or absorption. Representative United States patents that teach the preparation of such uptake, distribution and/or absorption-assisting formulations include, but are not limited to, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,108,921; 5,354,844; 5,416,016; 5,459,127; 5,521,291; 5,543,158; 5,547,932; 5,583,020; 5,591,721; 4,426,330; 4,534,899; 5,013,556; 5,108,921; 5,213,804; 5,227,170; 5,264,221; 5,356,633; 5,395,619; 5,416,016; 5,417,978; 5,462,854; 5,469,854; 5,512,295; 5,527,528; 5,534,259; 5,543,152; 5,556,948; 5,580,575; and 5,595,756, each of which is herein incorporated by reference.

The antisense compounds of the invention encompass any pharmaceutically acceptable salts, esters, or salts of such esters, or any other compound which, upon administration to an animal, including a human, is capable of providing (directly or indirectly) the biologically active metabolite or residue thereof. Accordingly, for example, the disclosure is also drawn to prodrugs and pharmaceutically acceptable salts of the compounds of the invention, pharmaceutically acceptable salts of such prodrugs, and other bioequivalents. Sodium is a suitable pharmaceutical salt, particularly for oligonucleotide compounds.

The term “prodrug” indicates a therapeutic agent that is prepared in an inactive form that is converted to an active form (i.e., drug) within the body or cells thereof by the action of endogenous enzymes or other chemicals and/or conditions. In particular, prodrug versions of the oligonucleotides of the invention are prepared as SATE [(S-acetyl-2-thioethyl) phosphate] derivatives according to the methods disclosed in WO 93/24510 to Gosselin et al., published Dec. 9, 1993 or in WO 94/26764 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,770,713 to Imbach et al. The term “pharmaceutically acceptable salts” refers to physiologically and pharmaceutically acceptable salts of the compounds of the invention: i.e., salts that retain the desired biological activity of the parent compound and do not impart undesired toxicological effects thereto. For oligonucleotides, preferred examples of pharmaceutically acceptable salts and their uses are further described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,287,860, which is incorporated herein in its entirety.

The present invention also includes pharmaceutical compositions and formulations which include the antisense compounds of the invention. The pharmaceutical compositions of the present invention may be administered in a number of ways depending upon whether local or systemic treatment is desired and upon the area to be treated. Administration may be topical (including ophthalmic and to mucous membranes including vaginal and rectal delivery), pulmonary, e.g., by inhalation or insufflation of powders or aerosols, including by nebulizer; intratracheal, intranasal, epidermal and transdermal), oral or parenteral. Parenteral administration includes intravenous, intraarterial, subcutaneous, intraperitoneal or intramuscular injection or infusion; or intracranial, e.g., intrathecal or intraventricular, administration. Oligonucleotides with at least one 2′-O-methoxyethyl modification are believed to be particularly useful for oral administration. Pharmaceutical compositions and formulations for topical administration may include transdermal patches, ointments, lotions, creams, gels, drops, suppositories, sprays, liquids and powders. Conventional pharmaceutical carriers, aqueous, powder or oily bases, thickeners and the like may be necessary or desirable. Coated condoms, gloves and the like may also be useful.

The pharmaceutical formulations of the present invention, which may conveniently be presented in unit dosage form, may be prepared according to conventional techniques well known in the pharmaceutical industry. Such techniques include the step of bringing into association the active ingredients with the pharmaceutical carrier(s) or excipient(s). In general, the formulations are prepared by uniformly and intimately bringing into association the active ingredients with liquid carriers or finely divided solid carriers or both, and then, if necessary, shaping the product.

The compositions of the present invention may be formulated into any of many possible dosage forms such as, but not limited to, tablets, capsules, gel capsules, liquid syrups, soft gels, suppositories, and enemas. The compositions of the present invention may also be formulated as suspensions in aqueous, non-aqueous or mixed media. Aqueous suspensions may further contain substances which increase the viscosity of the suspension including, for example, sodium carboxymethylcellulose, sorbitol and/or dextran. The suspension may also contain stabilizers.

Pharmaceutical compositions of the present invention include, but are not limited to, solutions, emulsions, foams and liposome-containing formulations. The pharmaceutical compositions and formulations of the present invention may comprise one or more penetration enhancers, carriers, excipients; or other active or inactive ingredients.

Emulsions are typically heterogenous systems of one liquid dispersed in another in the form of droplets usually exceeding 0.1 μm in diameter. Emulsions may contain additional components in addition to the dispersed phases, and the active drug which may be present as a solution in either the aqueous phase, oily phase or itself as a separate phase. Microemulsions are included as an embodiment of the present invention. Emulsions and their uses are well known in the art and are further described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,287,860, which is incorporated herein in its entirety.

Formulations of the present invention include liposomal formulations. As used in the present invention, the term “liposome” means a vesicle composed of amphiphilic lipids arranged in a spherical bilayer or bilayers. Liposomes are unilamellar or multilamellar vesicles which have a membrane formed from a lipophilic material and an aqueous interior that contains the composition to be delivered. Cationic liposomes are positively charged liposomes which are believed to interact with negatively charged DNA molecules to form a stable complex. Liposomes that are pH-sensitive or negatively-charged are believed to entrap DNA rather than complex with it. Both cationic and noncationic liposomes have been used to deliver DNA to cells.

Liposomes also include “sterically stabilized” liposomes, a term which, as used herein, refers to liposomes comprising one or more specialized lipids that, when incorporated into liposomes, result in enhanced circulation lifetimes relative to liposomes lacking such specialized lipids. Examples of sterically stabilized liposomes are those in which part of the vesicle-forming lipid portion of the liposome comprises one or more glycolipids or is derivatized with one or more hydrophilic polymers, such as a polyethylene glycol (PEG) moiety. Liposomes and their uses are further described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,287,860, which is incorporated herein in its entirety.

The pharmaceutical formulations and compositions of the present invention may also include surfactants. The use of surfactants in drug products, formulations and in emulsions is well known in the art. Surfactants and their uses are further described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,287,860, which is incorporated herein in its entirety.

In one embodiment, the present invention employs various penetration enhancers to effect the efficient delivery of nucleic acids, particularly oligonucleotides. In addition to aiding the diffusion of non-lipophilic drugs across cell membranes, penetration enhancers also enhance the permeability of lipophilic drugs. Penetration enhancers may be classified as belonging to one of five broad categories, i.e., surfactants, fatty acids, bile salts, chelating agents, and non-chelating non-surfactants. Penetration enhancers and their uses are further described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,287,860, which is incorporated herein in its entirety.

One of skill in the art will recognize that formulations are routinely designed according to their intended use, i.e. route of administration.

Also preferred antisense compounds are those capable of oral administration such as the 2′MOE antisense compounds and morpholino phosphorodiamidates. This provides further convenience for users relative to growth hormone receptor compounds in the prior art. Preferred compounds in the treatment of some conditions will be those that distribute broadly and thus capable of both local and/or systemic effects via the liver. It will be understood however, that in other conditions distribution to fewer organs may be preferred.

Preferred formulations for topical administration include those in which the oligonucleotides of the invention are in admixture with a topical delivery agent such as lipids, liposomes, fatty acids, fatty acid esters, steroids, chelating agents and surfactants. Preferred lipids and liposomes include neutral (e.g. dioleoylphosphatidyl ethanolamine DOPE, dimyristoylphosphatidyl choline DMPC, distearolyphosphatidyl choline) negative (e.g. dimyristoylphosphatidyl glycerol DMPG) and cationic (e.g. dioleoyltetramethylaminopropyl DOTAP and dioleoylphosphatidyl ethanolamine DOTMA).

For topical or other administration, oligonucleotides of the invention may be encapsulated within liposomes or may form complexes thereto, in particular to cationic liposomes. Alternatively, oligonucleotides may be complexed to lipids, in particular to cationic lipids. Preferred fatty acids and esters, pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof, and their uses are further described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,287,860, which is incorporated herein in its entirety. Topical formulations are described in detail in U.S. patent application 09/315,298 filed on May 20, 1999, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Compositions and formulations for oral administration include powders or granules, microparticulates, nanoparticulates, suspensions or solutions in water or non-aqueous media, capsules, gel capsules, sachets, tablets or minitablets. Thickeners, flavoring agents, diluents, emulsifiers, dispersing aids or binders may be desirable. Preferred oral formulations are those in which oligonucleotides of the invention are administered in conjunction with one or more penetration enhancers surfactants and chelators. Preferred surfactants include fatty acids and/or esters or salts thereof, bile acids and/or salts thereof. Preferred bile acids/salts and fatty acids and their uses are further described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,287,860, which is incorporated herein in its entirety. Also preferred are combinations of penetration enhancers, for example, fatty acids/salts in combination with bile acids/salts. A particularly preferred combination is the sodium salt of lauric acid, capric acid and UDCA. Further penetration enhancers include polyoxyethylene-9-lauryl ether, polyoxyethylene-20-cetyl ether. Oligonucleotides of the invention may be delivered orally, in granular form including sprayed dried particles, or complexed to form micro or nanoparticles. Oligonucleotide complexing agents and their uses are further described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,287,860, which is incorporated herein in its entirety. Oral formulations for oligonucleotides and their preparation are described in detail in U.S. application Ser. Nos. 09/108,673 (filed Jul. 1, 1998), 09/315,298 (filed May 20, 1999) and 10/071,822, filed Feb. 8, 2002, each of which is incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

Compositions and formulations for parenteral, intrathecal or intraventricular administration may include sterile aqueous solutions which may also contain buffers, diluents and other suitable additives such as, but not limited to, penetration enhancers, carrier compounds and other pharmaceutically acceptable carriers or excipients.

Certain embodiments of the invention provide pharmaceutical compositions containing one or more oligomeric compounds and one or more other chemotherapeutic agents which function by a non-antisense mechanism. Examples of such chemotherapeutic agents include but are not limited to cancer chemotherapeutic drugs such as daunorubicin, daunomycin, dactinomycin, doxorubicin, epirubicin, idarubicin, esorubicin, bleomycin, mafosfamide, ifosfamide, cytosine arabinoside, bis-chloroethylnitrosurea, busulfan, mitomycin C, actinomycin D, mithramycin, prednisone, hydroxyprogesterone, testosterone, tamoxifen, dacarbazine, procarbazine, hexamethylmelamine, pentamethylmelamine, mitoxantrone, amsacrine, chlorambucil, methylcyclohexylnitrosurea, nitrogen mustards, melphalan, cyclophosphamide, 6-mercaptopurine, 6-thioguanine, cytarabine, 5-azacytidine, hydroxyurea, deoxycoformycin, 4-hydroxyperoxycyclophosphoramide, 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), 5-fluorodeoxyuridine (5-FUdR), methotrexate (MTX), colchicine, taxol, vincristine, vinblastine, etoposide (VP-16), trimetrexate, irinotecan, topotecan, gemcitabine, teniposide, cisplatin and diethylstilbestrol (DES). When used with the compounds of the invention, such chemotherapeutic agents may be used individually (e.g., 5-FU and oligonucleotide), sequentially (e.g., 5-FU and oligonucleotide for a period of time followed by MTX and oligonucleotide), or in combination with one or more other such chemotherapeutic agents (e.g., 5-FU, MTX and oligonucleotide, or 5-FU, radiotherapy and oligonucleotide). Anti-inflammatory drugs, including but not limited to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and corticosteroids, and antiviral drugs, including but not limited to ribivirin, vidarabine, acyclovir and ganciclovir, may also be combined in compositions of the invention. Combinations of antisense compounds and other non-antisense drugs are also within the scope of this invention. Two or more combined compounds may be used together or sequentially. Particularly preferred combinations comprise Octreotide, Trovert and/or other inhibitor(s) or antagonists of growth hormone, insulin-like growth factor-I, IGFBP-3, growth hormone receptor or insulin-like growth factor1 receptor.

Compositions of the invention may contain one or more antisense compounds, particularly oligonucleotides, targeted to a first nucleic acid and one or more additional antisense compounds targeted to a second nucleic acid target. Alternatively, compositions of the invention may contain two or more antisense compounds targeted to different regions of the same nucleic acid target. Numerous examples of antisense compounds are known in the art. Two or more combined compounds may be used together or sequentially.

H. Dosing

The formulation of therapeutic compositions and their subsequent administration (dosing) is believed to be within the skill of those in the art. Dosing is dependent on severity and responsiveness of the disease state to be treated, with the course of treatment lasting from several days to several months, or until a cure is effected or a diminution of the disease state is achieved. Optimal dosing schedules can be calculated from measurements of drug accumulation in the body of the patient. Persons of ordinary skill can easily determine optimum dosages, dosing methodologies and repetition rates. Optimum dosages may vary depending on the relative potency of individual oligonucleotides, and can generally be estimated based on EC₅₀s found to be effective in in vitro and in vivo animal models. In general, dosage is from 0.01 ug to 100 g per kg of body weight, and may be given once or more daily, weekly, monthly or yearly, or even once every 2 to 20 years. Persons of ordinary skill in the art can easily estimate repetition rates for dosing based on measured residence times and concentrations of the drug in bodily fluids or tissues. Following successful treatment, it may be desirable to have the patient undergo maintenance therapy to prevent the recurrence of the disease state, wherein the oligonucleotide is administered in maintenance doses, ranging from 0.01 ug to 100 g per kg of body weight, once or more daily, to once every 20 years.

Preferred antisense oligonucleotides are made with chemistries capable of low frequency of dosing, i.e., once a day, once a week or less often. Particularly preferred antisense chemistries are those used herein which may be dosed once every second day and able to be dosed at least once per week sc, if not less frequently at once per month, based on the observations of antisense of the same class. This is less frequently than Trovert in same animal model, which was dosed every day, and less frequently than current clinical experience with Trovert. This provides enormous convenience for treatment of this chronic condition which may potentially improve compliance.

While the present invention has been described with specificity in accordance with certain of its preferred embodiments, the following examples serve only to illustrate the invention and are not intended to limit the same.

EXAMPLES Example 1 Synthesis of Nucleoside Phosphoramidites

The following compounds, including amidites and their intermediates were prepared as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,426,220 and published PCT WO 02/36743; 5′-O-Dimethoxytrityl-thymidine intermediate for 5-methyl dC amidite, 5′-O-Dimethoxytrityl-2′-deoxy-5-methylcytidine intermediate for 5-methyl-dC amidite, 5′-O-Dimethoxytrityl-2′-deoxy-N⁴-benzoyl-5-methylcytidine penultimate intermediate for 5-methyl dC amidite, [5′-O-(4,4′-Dimethoxytriphenylmethyl)-2′-deoxy-N⁴-benzoyl-5-methylcytidin-3′O-yl]-2-cyanoethyl-N,N-diisopropylphosphoramidite (5-methyl dC amidite), 2′-Fluorodeoxyadenosine, 2′-Fluorodeoxyguanosine, 2′-Fluorouridine, 2′-Fluorodeoxycytidine, 2′-O-(2-Methoxyethyl) modified amidites, 2′-O-(2-methoxyethyl)-5-methyluridine intermediate, 5′-O-DMT-2′-O-(2-methoxyethyl)-5-methyluridine penultimate intermediate, [5′-O-(4,4′-Dimethoxytriphenylmethyl)-2′-O-(2-methoxyethyl)-5-methyluridin-3′-O-yl]-2-cyanoethyl-N,N-diisopropylphosphoramidite (MOE T amidite), 5′-β-Dimethoxytrityl-2′-O-(2-methoxyethyl)-5-methylcytidine intermediate, 5′-O-dimethoxytrityl-2′-O-(2-methoxyethyl)-N⁴-benzoyl-5-methyl-cytidine penultimate intermediate, [5′-O-(4,4′-Dimethoxytriphenylmethyl)-2′-O-(2-methoxyethyl)-N⁴-benzoyl-5-methylcytidin-3′-O-yl]-2-cyanoethyl-N,N-diisopropylphosphoramidite (MOE 5-Me-C amidite), [5′-O-(4,4′-Dimethoxytriphenylmethyl)-2′-O-(2-methoxyethyl)-N⁶-benzoyladenosin-3′-O-yl]-2-cyanoethyl-N,N-diisopropylphosphoramidite (MOE A amdite), [5′-O-(4,4′-Dimethoxytriphenylmethyl)-2′-O-(2-methoxyethyl)-N⁴-isobutyrylguanosin-3′-O-yl]-2-cyanoethyl-N,N-diisopropylphosphoramidite (MOE G amidite), 2′-O-(Aminooxyethyl) nucleoside amidites and 2′-O-(dimethylaminooxyethyl) nucleoside amidites, 2′-(Dimethylaminooxyethoxy)nucleoside amidites, 5′-O-tert-Butyldiphenylsilyl-O²-2′-anhydro-5-methyluridine, 5′-O-tert-Butyldiphenylsilyl-2′-O-(2-hydroxyethyl)-5-methyluridine, 2′-O-([2-phthalimidoxy)ethyl]-5′-t-butyldiphenylsilyl-5-methyluridine, 5′-O-tert-butyldiphenylsilyl-2′-O-[(2-formadoximinooxy)ethyl]-5-methyluridine, 5′-O-tert-Butyldiphenylsilyl-2′-O—[N,N dimethylaminooxyethyl]-5-methyluridine, 2′-O-(dimethylaminooxyethyl)-5-methyluridine, 5′-O-DMT-2′-O-(dimethylaminooxyethyl)-5-methyluridine, 5′-O-DMT-2′-O-(2-N,N-dimethylaminooxyethyl)-5-methyluridine-3′-[(2-cyanoethyl)-N,N-diisopropylphosphoramidite], 2′-(Aminooxyethoxy) nucleoside amidites, N2-isobutyryl-6-O-diphenylcarbamoyl-2′-O-(2-ethylacetyl)-5′-O-(4,4′-dimethoxytrityl)guanosine-3′-[(2-cyanoethyl)-N,N-diisopropylphosphoramidite], 2′-dimethylaminoethoxyethoxy (2′-DMAEOE) nucleoside amidites, 2′-O-[2(2-N,N-dimethylaminoethoxy)ethyl]-5-methyl uridine, 5′-O-dimethoxytrityl-2′-O-[2(2-N,N-dimethylaminoethoxy)-ethyl)]-5-methyl uridine and 5′-O-Dimethoxytrityl-2′-O-[2(2-N,N-dimethylaminoethoxy)-ethyl)]-5-methyl uridine-3′-O-(cyanoethyl-N,N-diisopropyl)phosphoramidite.

Example 2 Oligonucleotide and Oligonucleoside Synthesis

The antisense compounds used in accordance with this invention may be conveniently and routinely made through the well-known technique of solid phase synthesis. Equipment for such synthesis is sold by several vendors including, for example, Applied Biosystems (Foster City, Calif.). Any other means for such synthesis known in the art may additionally or alternatively be employed. It is well known to use similar techniques to prepare oligonucleotides such as the phosphorothioates and alkylated derivatives.

Oligonucleotides: Unsubstituted and substituted phosphodiester (P═O) oligonucleotides are synthesized on an automated DNA synthesizer (Applied Biosystems model 394) using standard phosphoramidite chemistry with oxidation by iodine.

Phosphorothioates (P═S) are synthesized similar to phosphodiester oligonucleotides with the following exceptions: thiation was effected by utilizing a 10% w/v solution of 3,H-1,2-benzodithiole-3-one 1,1-dioxide in acetonitrile for the oxidation of the phosphite linkages. The thiation reaction step time was increased to 180 sec and preceded by the normal capping step. After cleavage from the CPG column and deblocking in concentrated ammonium hydroxide at 55° C. (12-16 hr), the oligonucleotides were recovered by precipitating with >3 volumes of ethanol from a 1 M NH₄OAc solution. Phosphinate oligonucleotides are prepared as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,508,270, herein incorporated by reference.

Alkyl phosphonate oligonucleotides are prepared as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,469,863, herein incorporated by reference.

3′-Deoxy-3′-methylene phosphonate oligonucleotides are prepared as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,610,289 or 5,625,050, herein incorporated by reference.

Phosphoramidite oligonucleotides are prepared as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,256,775 or U.S. Pat. No. 5,366,878, herein incorporated by reference.

Alkylphosphonothioate oligonucleotides are prepared as described in published PCT applications PCT/US94/00902 and PCT/US93/06976 (published as WO 94/17093 and WO 94/02499, respectively), herein incorporated by reference.

3′-Deoxy-3′-amino phosphoramidate oligonucleotides are prepared as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,476,925, herein incorporated by reference.

Phosphotriester oligonucleotides are prepared as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,023,243, herein incorporated by reference.

Borano phosphate oligonucleotides are prepared as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,130,302 and 5,177,198, both herein incorporated by reference.

Oligonucleosides: Methylenemethylimino linked oligonucleosides, also identified as MMI linked oligonucleosides, methylenedimethylhydrazo linked oligonucleosides, also identified as MDH linked oligonucleosides, and methylenecarbonylamino linked oligonucleosides, also identified as amide-3 linked oligonucleosides, and methyleneaminocarbonyl linked oligo-nucleosides, also identified as amide-4 linked oligonucleosides, as well as mixed backbone compounds having, for instance, alternating MMI and P═O or P═S linkages are prepared as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,378,825, 5,386,023, 5,489,677, 5,602,240 and 5,610,289, all of which are herein incorporated by reference.

Formacetal and thioformacetal linked oligonucleosides are prepared as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,264,562 and 5,264,564, herein incorporated by reference.

Ethylene oxide linked oligonucleosides are prepared as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,223,618, herein incorporated by reference.

Example 3 RNA Synthesis

In general, RNA synthesis chemistry is based on the selective incorporation of various protecting groups at strategic intermediary reactions. Although one of ordinary skill in the art will understand the use of protecting groups in organic synthesis, a useful class of protecting groups includes silyl ethers. In particular bulky silyl ethers are used to protect the 5′-hydroxyl in combination with an acid-labile orthoester protecting group on the 2′-hydroxyl. This set of protecting groups is then used with standard solid-phase synthesis technology. It is important to lastly remove the acid labile orthoester protecting group after all other synthetic steps. Moreover, the early use of the silyl protecting groups during synthesis ensures facile removal when desired, without undesired deprotection of 2′ hydroxyl.

Following this procedure for the sequential protection of the 5′-hydroxyl in combination with protection of the 2′-hydroxyl by protecting groups that are differentially removed and are differentially chemically labile, RNA oligonucleotides were synthesized.

RNA oligonucleotides are synthesized in a stepwise fashion. Each nucleotide is added sequentially (3′- to 5′-direction) to a solid support-bound oligonucleotide. The first nucleoside at the 3′-end of the chain is covalently attached to a solid support. The nucleotide precursor, a ribonucleoside phosphoramidite, and activator are added, coupling the second base onto the 5′-end of the first nucleoside. The support is washed and any unreacted 5′-hydroxyl groups are capped with acetic anhydride to yield 5′-acetyl moieties. The linkage is then oxidized to the more stable and ultimately desired P(V) linkage. At the end of the nucleotide addition cycle, the 5″-silyl group is cleaved with fluoride. The cycle is repeated for each subsequent nucleotide.

Following synthesis, the methyl protecting groups on the phosphates are cleaved in 30 minutes utilizing 1 M disodium-2-carbamoyl-2-cyanoethylene-1,1-dithiolate trihydrate (S₂Na₂) in DMF. The deprotection solution is washed from the solid support-bound oligonucleotide using water. The support is then treated with 40% methylamine in water for 10 minutes at 55° C. This releases the RNA oligonucleotides into solution, deprotects the exocyclic amines, and modifies the 2′-groups. The oligonucleotides can be analyzed by anion exchange HPLC at this stage.

The 2′-orthoester groups are the last protecting groups to be removed. The ethylene glycol monoacetate orthoester protecting group developed by Dharmacon Research, Inc. (Lafayette, Colo.), is one example of a useful orthoester protecting group which, has the following important properties. It is stable to the conditions of nucleoside phosphoramidite synthesis and oligonucleotide synthesis. However, after oligonucleotide synthesis the oligonucleotide is treated with methylamine which not only cleaves the oligonucleotide from the solid support but also removes the acetyl groups from the orthoesters. The resulting 2-ethyl-hydroxyl substituents on the orthoester are less electron withdrawing than the acetylated precursor. As a result, the modified orthoester becomes more labile to acid-catalyzed hydrolysis. Specifically, the rate of cleavage is approximately 10 times faster after the acetyl groups are removed. Therefore, this orthoester possesses sufficient stability in order to be compatible with oligonucleotide synthesis and yet, when subsequently modified, permits deprotection to be carried out under relatively mild aqueous conditions compatible with the final RNA oligonucleotide product.

Additionally, methods of RNA synthesis are well known in the art (Scaringe, S. A. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Colorado, 1996; Scaringe, S. A., et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1998, 120, 11820-11821; Matteucci, M. D. and Caruthers, M. H. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1981, 103, 3185-3191; Beaucage, S. L. and Caruthers, M. H. Tetrahedron Lett., 1981, 22, 1859-1862; Dahl, B. J., et al., Acta Chem. Scand,. 1990, 44, 639-641; Reddy, M. P., et al., Tetrahedrom Lett., 1994, 25, 4311-4314; Wincott, F. et al., Nucleic Acids Res., 1995, 23, 2677-2684; Griffin, B. E., et al., Tetrahedron, 1967, 23, 2301-2313; Griffin, B. E., et al., Tetrahedron, 1967, 23, 2315-2331).

RNA antisense compounds (RNA oligonucleotides) of the present invention can be synthesized by the methods herein or purchased from Dharmacon Research, Inc (Lafayette, Colo.). Once synthesized, complementary RNA antisense compounds can then be annealed by methods known in the art to form double stranded (duplexed) antisense compounds. For example, duplexes can be formed by combining 30 μl of each of the complementary strands of RNA oligonucleotides (50 uM RNA oligonucleotide solution) and 15 μl of 5× annealing buffer (100 mM potassium acetate, 30 mM HEPES-KOH pH 7.4, 2 mM magnesium acetate) followed by heating for 1 minute at 90° C., then 1 hour at 37° C. The resulting duplexed antisense compounds can be used in kits, assays, screens, or other methods to investigate the role of a target nucleic acid.

Example 4 Synthesis of Chimeric Oligonucleotides

Chimeric oligonucleotides, oligonucleosides or mixed oligonucleotides/oligonucleosides of the invention can be of several different types. These include a first type wherein the “gap” segment of linked nucleosides is positioned between 5′ and 3′ “wing” segments of linked nucleosides and a second “open end” type wherein the “gap” segment is located at either the 3′ or the 5′ terminus of the oligomeric compound. Oligonucleotides of the first type are also known in the art as “gapmers” or gapped oligonucleotides. Oligonucleotides of the second type are also known in the art as “hemimers” or “wingmers”.

[2′-O-Me]-[2′-deoxy]-[2′-O-Me] Chimeric Phosphorothioate Oligonucleotides

Chimeric oligonucleotides having 2′-O-alkyl phosphorothioate and 2′-deoxy phosphorothioate oligonucleotide segments are synthesized using an Applied Biosystems automated DNA synthesizer Model 394, as above. Oligonucleotides are synthesized using the automated synthesizer and 2′-deoxy-5′-dimethoxytrityl-3′-O-phosphoramidite for the DNA portion and 5′-dimethoxytrityl-2′-O-methyl-3′-O-phosphoramidite for 5′ and 3′ wings. The standard synthesis cycle is modified by incorporating coupling steps with increased reaction times for the 5′-dimethoxytrityl-2′-O-methyl-3′-O-phosphoramidite. The fully protected oligonucleotide is cleaved from the support and deprotected in concentrated ammonia (NH₄OH) for 12-16 hr at 55° C. The deprotected oligo is then recovered by an appropriate method (precipitation, column chromatography, volume reduced in vacuo and analyzed spetrophotometrically for yield and for purity by capillary electrophoresis and by mass spectrometry.

[2′-O-(2-Methoxyethyl)]-[2′-deoxy]-(2′-O-(Methoxyethyl)] Chimeric Phosphorothioate Oligonucleotides

[2′-O-(2-methoxyethyl)]-[2′-deoxy]-[-2′-O-(methoxyethyl)] chimeric phosphorothioate oligonucleotides were prepared as per the procedure above for the 2′-O-methyl chimeric oligonucleotide, with the substitution of 2′-O-(methoxyethyl) amidites for the 2′-O-methyl amidites.

[2′-O-(2-Methoxyethyl)Phosphodiester]-[2′-deoxy Phosphoro-thioate]-[2′-O-(2-Methoxyethyl)Phosphodiester] Chimeric Oligonucleotides

[2′-O-(2-methoxyethyl phosphodiester]-[2′-deoxy phosphorothioate]-[2′-O-(methoxyethyl) phosphodiester] chimeric oligonucleotides are prepared as per the above procedure for the 2′-O-methyl chimeric oligonucleotide with the substitution of 2′-O-(methoxyethyl) amidites for the 2′-O-methyl amidites, oxidation with iodine to generate the phosphodiester internucleotide linkages within the wing portions of the chimeric structures and sulfurization utilizing 3,H-1,2 benzodithiole-3-one 1,1 dioxide (Beaucage Reagent) to generate the phosphorothioate internucleotide linkages for the center gap.

Other chimeric oligonucleotides, chimeric oligonucleosides and mixed chimeric oligonucleotides/oligonucleosides are synthesized according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,623,065, herein incorporated by reference.

Example 5 Design and Screening of Duplexed Antisense Compounds Targeting Growth Hormone Receptor

In accordance with the present invention, a series of nucleic acid duplexes comprising the antisense compounds of the present invention and their complements can be designed to target growth hormone receptor. In one embodiment these nucleic acid duplexes are double-stranded RNA compounds (small interfering RNAs or siRNAs). In general, active sites for RNase H-dependent antisense oligonucleotides predict active sites for siRNA (Vickers et al., 2003, J. Biol Chem. 278, 7108-7118). In one embodiment of the invention, the nucleobase sequence of the antisense strand of the duplex comprises at least a portion of an oligonucleotide sequence shown in Table 1. Alternatively, a new “gene walk” in which a series of dsRNAs targeted to growth hormone receptor are synthesized and tested may be used.

The ends of the dsRNA strands may be modified by the addition of one or more natural or modified nucleobases to form an overhang. The sense strand of the dsRNA is then designed and synthesized as the complement of the antisense strand and may also contain modifications or additions to either terminus. For example, in one embodiment, both strands of the dsRNA duplex would be complementary over the central nucleobases, each having overhangs at one or both termini. The duplex may be a unimolecular or bimolecular duplex; i.e, the two strands may be connected to each other directly or by means of a linker, or may be separate molecules.

By way of example, a duplex comprising an antisense strand having the sequence CGAGAGGCGGACGGGACCG and having a two-nucleobase overhang of deoxythymidine(dT) would have the following structure:

In another embodiment, a duplex comprising an antisense strand having the same sequence CGAGAGGCGGACGGGACCG may be prepared with blunt ends (no single stranded overhang) as shown:

RNA strands of the duplex can be synthesized by methods disclosed herein or purchased from Dharmacon Research Inc., (Lafayette, Colo.). Once synthesized, the complementary strands are annealed. The single strands are aliquoted and diluted to a concentration of 50 uM. Once diluted, 30 uL of each strand is combined with 15 uL of a 5× solution of annealing buffer. The final concentration of said buffer is 100 mM potassium acetate, 30 mM HEPES-KOH pH 7.4, and 2 mM magnesium acetate. The final volume is 75 uL. This solution is incubated for 1 minute at 90° C. and then centrifuged for 15 seconds. The tube is allowed to sit for 1 hour at 37° C. at which time the dsRNA duplexes are used in experimentation. The final concentration of the dsRNA duplex is 20 uM. This solution can be stored frozen (−20° C.) and freeze-thawed up to 5 times.

Once prepared, the duplexed antisense compounds are evaluated for their ability to modulate growth hormone receptor expression.

When cells reached 80% confluency, they are treated with duplexed antisense compounds of the invention. For cells grown in 96-well plates, wells are washed once with 200 μL OPTI-MEM-1 reduced-serum medium (Gibco BRL) and then treated with 130 μL of OPTI-MEM-1 containing 12 μg/mL LIPOFECTIN (Gibco BRL) and the desired duplex antisense compound at a final concentration of 200 nM. After 5 hours of treatment, the medium is replaced with fresh medium. Cells are harvested 16 hours after treatment, at which time RNA is isolated and target reduction measured by RT-PCR.

Example 6 Oligonucleotide Isolation

After cleavage from the controlled pore glass solid support and deblocking in concentrated ammonium hydroxide at 55° C. for 12-16 hours, the oligonucleotides or oligonucleosides are recovered by precipitation out of 1 M NH₄OAc with >3 volumes of ethanol. Synthesized oligonucleotides were analyzed by electrospray mass spectroscopy (molecular weight determination) and by capillary gel electrophoresis and judged to be at least 70% full length material. The relative amounts of phosphorothioate and phosphodiester linkages obtained in the synthesis was determined by the ratio of correct molecular weight relative to the −16 amu product (+/−32 +/−48). For some studies oligonucleotides were purified by HPLC, as described by Chiang et al., J. Biol. Chem. 1991, 266, 18162-18171. Results obtained with HPLC-purified material were similar to those obtained with non-HPLC purified material.

Example 7 Oligonucleotide Synthesis—96 Well Plate Format

Oligonucleotides were synthesized via solid phase P(III) phosphoramidite chemistry on an automated synthesizer capable of assembling 96 sequences simultaneously in a 96-well format. Phosphodiester internucleotide linkages were afforded by oxidation with aqueous iodine. Phosphorothioate internucleotide linkages were generated by sulfurization utilizing 3,H-1,2 benzodithiole-3-one 1,1 dioxide (Beaucage Reagent) in anhydrous acetonitrile. Standard base-protected beta-cyanoethyl-diiso-propyl phosphoramidites were purchased from commercial vendors (e.g. PE-Applied Biosystems, Foster City, Calif., or Pharmacia, Piscataway, N.J.). Non-standard nucleosides are synthesized as per standard or patented methods. They are utilized as base protected beta-cyanoethyldiisopropyl phosphoramidites.

Oligonucleotides were cleaved from support and deprotected with concentrated NH₄OH at elevated temperature (55-60° C.) for 12-16 hours and the released product then dried in vacuo. The dried product was then re-suspended in sterile water to afford a master plate from which all analytical and test plate samples are then diluted utilizing robotic pipettors.

Example 8 Oligonucleotide Analysis—96-Well Plate Format

The concentration of oligonucleotide in each well was assessed by dilution of samples and UV absorption spectroscopy. The full-length integrity of the individual products was evaluated by capillary electrophoresis (CE) in either the 96-well format (Beckman P/ACE™ MDQ) or, for individually prepared samples, on a commercial CE apparatus (e.g., Beckman P/ACE™ 5000, ABI 270). Base and backbone composition was confirmed by mass analysis of the compounds utilizing electrospray-mass spectroscopy. All assay test plates were diluted from the master plate using single and multi-channel robotic pipettors. Plates were judged to be acceptable if at least 85% of the compounds on the plate were at least 85% full length.

Example 9 Cell Culture and Oligonucleotide Treatment

The effect of antisense compounds on target nucleic acid expression can be tested in any of a variety of cell types provided that the target nucleic acid is present at measurable levels. This can be routinely determined using, for example, PCR or Northern blot analysis. The following cell types are provided for illustrative purposes, but other cell types can be routinely used, provided that the target is expressed in the cell type chosen. This can be readily determined by methods routine in the art, for example Northern blot analysis, ribonuclease protection assays, or RT-PCR.

T-24 Cells:

The human transitional cell bladder carcinoma cell line T-24 was obtained from the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) (Manassas, Va.). T-24 cells were routinely cultured in complete McCoy's 5A basal media (Invitrogen Corporation, Carlsbad, Calif.) supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum (Invitrogen Corporation, Carlsbad, Calif.), penicillin 100 units per mL, and streptomycin 100 micrograms per mL (Invitrogen Corporation, Carlsbad, Calif.). Cells were routinely passaged by trypsinization and dilution when they reached 90% confluence. Cells were seeded into 96-well plates (Falcon-Primaria #353872) at a density of 7000 cells/well for use in RT-PCR analysis.

For Northern blotting or other analysis, cells may be seeded onto 100 mm or other standard tissue culture plates and treated similarly, using appropriate volumes of medium and oligonucleotide.

A549 Cells:

The human lung carcinoma cell line A549 was obtained from the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) (Manassas, Va.). A549 cells were routinely cultured in DMEM basal media (Invitrogen Corporation, Carlsbad, Calif.) supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum (Invitrogen Corporation, Carlsbad, Calif.), penicillin 100 units per mL, and streptomycin 100 micrograms per mL (Invitrogen Corporation, Carlsbad, Calif.). Cells were routinely passaged by trypsinization and dilution when they reached 90% confluence.

NHDF Cells:

Human neonatal dermal fibroblast (NHDF) were obtained from the Clonetics Corporation (Walkersville, Md.). NHDFs were routinely maintained in Fibroblast Growth Medium (Clonetics Corporation, Walkersville, Md.) supplemented as recommended by the supplier. Cells were maintained for up to 10 passages as recommended by the supplier.

HEK Cells:

Human embryonic keratinocytes (HEK) were obtained from the Clonetics Corporation (Walkersville, Md.). HEKs were routinely maintained in Keratinocyte Growth Medium (Clonetics Corporation, Walkersville, Md.) formulated as recommended by the supplier. Cells were routinely maintained for up to 10 passages as recommended by the supplier.

MCF7:

The human breast carcinoma cell line MCF-7 was obtained from the American Type Culture Collection (Manassas, Va.). MCF-7 cells were routinely cultured in DMEM low glucose (Gibco/Life Technologies, Gaithersburg, Md.) supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum (Gibco/Life Technologies, Gaithersburg, Md.). Cells were routinely passaged by trypsinization and dilution when they reached 90% confluence. Cells were seeded into 96-well plates (Falcon-Primaria #3872) at a density of 7000 cells/well for use in RT-PCR analysis.

For Northern blotting or other analyses, cells may be seeded onto 100 mm or other standard tissue culture plates and treated similarly, using appropriate volumes of medium and oligonucleotide.

b.END Cells:

The mouse brain endothelial cell line b.END was obtained from Dr. Werner Risau at the Max Plank Instititute (Bad Nauheim, Germany). b.END cells were routinely cultured in DMEM, high glucose (Gibco/Life Technologies, Gaithersburg, Md.) supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum (Gibco/Life Technologies, Gaithersburg, Md.). Cells were routinely passaged by trypsinization and dilution when they reached 90% confluence. Cells were seeded into 96-well plates (Falcon-Primaria #3872) at a density of 3000 cells/well for use in RT-PCR analysis.

For Northern blotting or other analyses, cells may be seeded onto 100 mm or other standard tissue culture plates and treated similarly, using appropriate volumes of medium and oligonucleotide.

Treatment with Antisense Compounds:

When cells reached 65-75% confluency, they were treated with oligonucleotide. For cells grown in 96-well plates, wells were washed once with 100 μL OPTI-MEM™-1 reduced-serum medium (Invitrogen Corporation, Carlsbad, Calif.) and then treated with 130 μL of OPTI-MEM™-1 containing 3.75 μg/mL LIPOFECTIN™ (Invitrogen Corporation, Carlsbad, Calif.) and the desired concentration of oligonucleotide. Cells are treated and data are obtained in triplicate. After 4-7 hours of treatment at 37° C., the medium was replaced with fresh medium. Cells were harvested 16-24 hours after oligonucleotide treatment.

The concentration of oligonucleotide used varies from cell line to cell line. To determine the optimal oligonucleotide concentration for a particular cell line, the cells are treated with a positive control oligonucleotide at a range of concentrations. For human cells the positive control oligonucleotide is selected from either ISIS 13920 (TCCGTCATCGCTCCTCAGGG, SEQ ID NO: 1) which is targeted to human H-ras, or ISIS 18078, (GTGCGCGCGAGCCCGAAATC, SEQ ID NO: 2) which is targeted to human Jun-N-terminal kinase-2 (JNK2). Both controls are 2′-O-methoxyethyl gapmers (2′-O-methoxyethyls shown in bold) with a phosphorothioate backbone. For mouse or rat cells the positive control oligonucleotide is ISIS 15770, ATGCATTCTGCCCCCAAGGA, SEQ ID NO: 3, a 2′-O-methoxyethyl gapmer (2′-O-methoxyethyls shown in bold) with a phosphorothioate backbone which is targeted to both mouse and rat c-raf. The concentration of positive control oligonucleotide that results in 80% inhibition of c-H-ras (for ISIS 13920), JNK2 (for ISIS 18078) or c-raf (for ISIS 15770) mRNA is then utilized as the screening concentration for new oligonucleotides in subsequent experiments for that cell line. If 80% inhibition is not achieved, the lowest concentration of positive control oligonucleotide that results in 60% inhibition of c-H-ras, JNK2 or c-raf mRNA is then utilized as the oligonucleotide screening concentration in subsequent experiments for that cell line. If 60% inhibition is not achieved, that particular cell line is deemed as unsuitable for oligonucleotide transfection experiments. The concentrations of antisense oligonucleotides used herein are from 50 nM to 300 nM.

Example 10 Analysis of Oligonucleotide Inhibition of Growth Hormone Receptor Expression

Antisense modulation of growth hormone receptor expression can be assayed in a variety of ways known in the art. For example, growth hormone receptor mRNA levels can be quantitated by, e.g., Northern blot analysis, competitive polymerase chain reaction (PCR), or real-time PCR (RT-PCR). Real-time quantitative PCR is presently preferred. RNA analysis can be performed on total cellular RNA or poly(A)+ mRNA. The preferred method of RNA analysis of the present invention is the use of total cellular RNA as described in other examples herein. Methods of RNA isolation are well known in the art. Northern blot analysis is also routine in the art. Real-time quantitative (PCR) can be conveniently accomplished using the commercially available ABI PRISM™ 7600, 7700, or 7900 Sequence Detection System, available from PE-Applied Biosystems, Foster City, Calif. and used according to manufacturer's instructions.

Protein levels of growth hormone receptor can be quantitated in a variety of ways well known in the art, such as immunoprecipitation, Western blot analysis (immunoblotting), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) or fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). Antibodies directed to growth hormone receptor can be identified and obtained from a variety of sources, such as the MSRS catalog of antibodies (Aerie Corporation, Birmingham, Mich.), or can be prepared via conventional monoclonal or polyclonal antibody generation methods well known in the art.

Reduction in expression of growth hormone receptor may also be indirectly measured by measuring decreases in insulin-like growth factor-I in serum or other bodily fluid, tissues or organs.

Example 11 Design of Phenotypic Assays and In Vivo Studies for the Use of Growth Hormone Receptor Inhibitors Phenotypic Assays

Once growth hormone receptor inhibitors have been identified by the methods disclosed herein, the compounds are further investigated in one or more phenotypic assays, each having measurable endpoints predictive of efficacy in the treatment of a particular disease state or condition. Phenotypic assays, kits and reagents for their use are well known to those skilled in the art and are herein used to investigate the role and/or association of growth hormone receptor in health and disease. Representative phenotypic assays, which can be purchased from any one of several commercial vendors, include those for determining cell viability, cytotoxicity, proliferation or cell survival (Molecular Probes, Eugene, Oreg.; PerkinElmer, Boston, Mass.), protein-based assays including enzymatic assays (Panvera, LLC, Madison, Wis.; BD Biosciences, Franklin Lakes, N.J.; Oncogene Research Products, San Diego, Calif.), cell regulation, signal transduction, inflammation, oxidative processes and apoptosis (Assay Designs Inc., Ann Arbor, Mich.), triglyceride accumulation (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, Mo.), angiogenesis assays, tube formation assays, cytokine and hormone assays and metabolic assays (Chemicon International Inc., Temecula, Calif.; Amersham Biosciences, Piscataway, N.J.).

In one non-limiting example, cells determined to be appropriate for a particular phenotypic assay (i.e., MCF-7 cells selected for breast cancer studies; adipocytes for obesity studies) are treated with growth hormone receptor inhibitors identified from the in vitro studies as well as control compounds at optimal concentrations which are determined by the methods described above. At the end of the treatment period, treated and untreated cells are analyzed by one or more methods specific for the assay to determine phenotypic outcomes and endpoints.

Phenotypic endpoints include changes in cell morphology over time or treatment dose as well as changes in levels of cellular components such as proteins, lipids, nucleic acids, hormones, saccharides or metals. Measurements of cellular status which include pH, stage of the cell cycle, intake or excretion of biological indicators by the cell, are also endpoints of interest.

Analysis of the geneotype of the cell (measurement of the expression of one or more of the genes of the cell) after treatment is also used as an indicator of the efficacy or potency of the growth hormone receptor inhibitors. Hallmark genes, or those genes suspected to be associated with a specific disease state, condition, or phenotype, are measured in both treated and untreated cells.

In vivo Studies

The individual subjects of the in vivo studies described herein are warm-blooded vertebrate animals, which includes humans.

The clinical trial is subjected to rigorous controls to ensure that individuals are not unnecessarily put at risk and that they are fully informed about their role in the study. To account for the psychological effects of receiving treatments, volunteers are randomly given placebo or growth hormone receptor inhibitor. Furthermore, to prevent the doctors from being biased in treatments, they are not informed as to whether the medication they are administering is a growth hormone receptor inhibitor or a placebo. Using this randomization approach, each volunteer has the same chance of being given either the new treatment or the placebo.

Volunteers receive either the growth hormone receptor inhibitor or placebo for eight week period with biological parameters associated with the indicated disease state or condition being measured at the beginning (baseline measurements before any treatment), end (after the final treatment), and at regular intervals during the study period. Such measurements include the levels of nucleic acid molecules encoding growth hormone receptor or growth hormone receptor protein levels in body fluids, tissues or organs compared to pre-treatment levels. Other measurements include, but are not limited to, indices of the disease state or condition being treated, body weight, blood pressure, serum titers of pharmacologic indicators of disease or toxicity as well as ADME (absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion) measurements.

Information recorded for each patient includes age (years), gender, height (cm), family history of disease state or condition (yes/no), motivation rating (some/moderate/great) and number and type of previous treatment regimens for the indicated disease or condition.

Volunteers taking part in this study are healthy adults (age 18 to 65 years) and roughly an equal number of males and females participate in the study. Volunteers with certain characteristics are equally distributed for placebo and growth hormone receptor inhibitor treatment. In general, the volunteers treated with placebo have little or no response to treatment, whereas the volunteers treated with the growth hormone receptor inhibitor show positive trends in their disease state or condition index at the conclusion of the study.

Example 12 RNA Isolation

Poly(A)+ mRNA Isolation

Poly(A)+ mRNA was isolated according to Miura et al., (Clin. Chem., 1996, 42, 1758-1764). Other methods for poly(A)+ mRNA isolation are routine in the art. Briefly, for cells grown on 96-well plates, growth medium was removed from the cells and each well was washed with 200 μl, cold PBS. 60 μlysis buffer (10 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.6, 1 mM EDTA, 0.5 M NaCl, 0.5% NP-40, 20 mM vanadyl-ribonucleoside complex) was added to each well, the plate was gently agitated and then incubated at room temperature for five minutes. 55 μL of lysate was transferred to Oligo d(T) coated 96-well plates (AGCT Inc., Irvine Calif.). Plates were incubated for 60 minutes at room temperature, washed 3 times with 200 μL of wash buffer (10 mM Tris-HCl pH 7.6, 1 mM EDTA, 0.3 M NaCl). After the final wash, the plate was blotted on paper towels to remove excess wash buffer and then air-dried for 5 minutes. 60 μL of elution buffer (5 mM Tris-HCl pH 7.6), preheated to 70° C., was added to each well, the plate was incubated on a 90° C. hot plate for 5 minutes, and the eluate was then transferred to a fresh 96-well plate.

Cells grown on 100 mm or other standard plates may be treated similarly, using appropriate volumes of all solutions.

Total RNA Isolation

Total RNA was isolated using an RNEASY 96™ kit and buffers purchased from Qiagen Inc. (Valencia, Calif.) following the manufacturer's recommended procedures. Briefly, for cells grown on 96-well plates, growth medium was removed from the cells and each well was washed with 200 μL cold PBS. 150 μL Buffer RLT was added to each well and the plate vigorously agitated for 20 seconds. 150 μL of 70% ethanol was then added to each well and the contents mixed by pipetting three times up and down. The samples were then transferred to the RNEASY 96™ well plate attached to a QIAVAC™ manifold fitted with a waste collection tray and attached to a vacuum source. Vacuum was applied for 1 minute. 500 μL of Buffer RW1 was added to each well of the RNEASY 96™ plate and incubated for 15 minutes and the vacuum was again applied for 1 minute. An additional 500 μL of Buffer RW1 was added to each well of the RNEASY 96™ plate and the vacuum was applied for 2 minutes. 1 mL of Buffer RPE was then added to each well of the RNEASY 96™ plate and the vacuum applied for a period of 90 seconds. The Buffer RPE wash was then repeated and the vacuum was applied for an additional 3 minutes. The plate was then removed from the QIAVAC™ manifold and blotted dry on paper towels. The plate was then re-attached to the QIAVAC™ manifold fitted with a collection tube rack containing 1.2 mL collection tubes. RNA was then eluted by pipetting 140 μL of RNAse free water into each well, incubating 1 minute, and then applying the vacuum for 3 minutes.

The repetitive pipetting and elution steps may be automated using a QIAGEN Bio-Robot 9604 (Qiagen, Inc., Valencia Calif.). Essentially, after lysing of the cells on the culture plate, the plate is transferred to the robot deck where the pipetting, DNase treatment and elution steps are carried out.

Example 13 Real-Time Quantitative PCR Analysis of Growth Hormone Receptor mRNA Levels

Quantitation of growth hormone receptor mRNA levels was accomplished by real-time quantitative PCR using the ABI PRISM™ 7600, 7700, or 7900 Sequence Detection System (PE-Applied Biosystems, Foster City, Calif.) according to manufacturer's instructions. This is a closed-tube, non-gel-based, fluorescence detection system which allows high-throughput quantitation of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products in real-time. As opposed to standard PCR in which amplification products are quantitated after the PCR is completed, products in real-time quantitative PCR are quantitated as they accumulate. This is accomplished by including in the PCR reaction an oligonucleotide probe that anneals specifically between the forward and reverse PCR primers, and contains two fluorescent dyes. A reporter dye (e.g., FAM or JOE, obtained from either PE-Applied Biosystems, Foster City, Calif., Operon Technologies Inc., Alameda, Calif. or Integrated DNA Technologies Inc., Coralville, Iowa) is attached to the 5′ end of the probe and a quencher dye (e.g., TAMRA, obtained from either PE-Applied Biosystems, Foster City, Calif., Operon Technologies Inc., Alameda, Calif. or Integrated DNA Technologies Inc., Coralville, Iowa) is attached to the 3′ end of the probe. When the probe and dyes are intact, reporter dye emission is quenched by the proximity of the 3′ quencher dye. During amplification, annealing of the probe to the target sequence creates a substrate that can be cleaved by the 5′-exonuclease activity of Taq polymerase. During the extension phase of the PCR amplification cycle, cleavage of the probe by Taq polymerase releases the reporter dye from the remainder of the probe (and hence from the quencher moiety) and a sequence-specific fluorescent signal is generated. With each cycle, additional reporter dye molecules are cleaved from their respective probes, and the fluorescence intensity is monitored at regular intervals by laser optics built into the ABI PRISM™ Sequence Detection System. In each assay, a series of parallel reactions containing serial dilutions of mRNA from untreated control samples generates a standard curve that is used to quantitate the percent inhibition after antisense oligonucleotide treatment of test samples.

Prior to quantitative PCR analysis, primer-probe sets specific to the target gene being measured are evaluated for their ability to be “multiplexed” with a GAPDH amplification reaction. In multiplexing, both the target gene and the internal standard gene GAPDH are amplified concurrently in a single sample. In this analysis, mRNA isolated from untreated cells is serially diluted. Each dilution is amplified in the presence of primer-probe sets specific for GAPDH only, target gene only (“single-plexing”), or both (multiplexing). Following PCR amplification, standard curves of GAPDH and target mRNA signal as a function of dilution are generated from both the single-plexed and multiplexed samples. If both the slope and correlation coefficient of the GAPDH and target signals generated from the multiplexed samples fall within 10% of their corresponding values generated from the single-plexed samples, the primer-probe set specific for that target is deemed multiplexable. Other methods of PCR are also known in the art.

PCR reagents were obtained from Invitrogen Corporation, (Carlsbad, Calif.). RT-PCR reactions were carried out by adding 20 μL PCR cocktail (2.5×PCR buffer minus MgCl₂, 6.6 mM MgCl₂, 375 μM each of dATP, dCTP, dCTP and dGTP, 375 nM each of forward primer and reverse primer, 125 nM of probe, 4 Units RNAse inhibitor, 1.25 Units PLATINUM® Taq, 5 Units MuLV reverse transcriptase, and 2.5×ROX dye) to 96-well plates containing 30 μL total RNA solution (20-200 ng). The RT reaction was carried out by incubation for 30 minutes at 48° C. Following a 10 minute incubation at 95° C. to activate the PLATINUM® Taq, 40 cycles of a two-step PCR protocol were carried out: 95° C. for 15 seconds (denaturation) followed by 60° C. for 1.5 minutes (annealing/extension).

Gene target quantities obtained by real time RT-PCR are normalized using either the expression level of GAPDH, a gene whose expression is constant, or by quantifying total RNA using RiboGreen™ (Molecular Probes, Inc. Eugene, Oreg.). GAPDH expression is quantified by real time RT-PCR, by being run simultaneously with the target, multiplexing, or separately. Total RNA is quantified using RiboGreen™ RNA quantification reagent (Molecular Probes, Inc. Eugene, Oreg.). Methods of RNA quantification by RiboGreen™ are taught in Jones, L. J., et al, (Analytical Biochemistry, 1998, 265, 368-374).

In this assay, 170 μL of RiboGreen™ working reagent (RiboGreen™ reagent diluted 1:350 in 10 mM Tris-HCl, 1 mM EDTA, pH 7:5) is pipetted into a 96-well plate containing 30 μL purified, cellular RNA. The plate is read in a CytoFluor 4000 (PE Applied Biosystems) with excitation at 485 nm and emission at 530 nm.

Probes and primers to human growth hormone receptor were designed to hybridize to a human growth hormone receptor sequence, using published sequence information (GenBank accession number NM_(—)000163.1, incorporated herein as SEQ ID NO:4). For human growth hormone receptor the PCR primers were: forward primer: GATGTCCCAATGTGACATGCA (SEQ ID NO: 5) reverse primer: AAGTAGGCATTGTCCATAAGGAAGTT (SEQ ID NO: 6) and the PCR probe was: FAM-CCGGAAATGGTCTCACTCTGCCAAGA-TAMRA (SEQ ID NO: 7) where FAM is the fluorescent dye and TAMRA is the quencher dye. For human GAPDH the PCR primers were: forward primer: GAAGGTGAAGGTCGGAGTC(SEQ ID NO:8) reverse primer: GAAGATGGTGATGGGATTTC (SEQ ID NO:9) and the PCR probe was: 5′ JOE-CAAGCTTCCCGTTCTCAGCC— TAMRA 3′ (SEQ ID NO: 10) where JOE is the fluorescent reporter dye and TAMRA is the quencher dye.

Probes and primers to mouse growth hormone receptor were designed to hybridize to a mouse growth hormone receptor sequence, using published sequence information (GenBank accession number NM_(—)010284.1, incorporated herein as SEQ ID NO:11). For mouse growth hormone receptor the PCR primers were: forward primer: TTGACGAAATAGTGCAACCTGATC (SEQ ID NO:12) reverse primer: CGAATCCCGGTCAAACTAATG (SEQ ID NO: 13) and the PCR probe was: FAM-CATTGGCCTCAACTGGACTTTACTAA-TAMRA (SEQ ID NO: 14) where FAM is the fluorescent reporter dye and TAMRA is the quencher dye. For mouse GAPDH the PCR primers were:

forward primer: GGCAAATTCAACGGCACAGT(SEQ ID NO:15) reverse primer: GGGTCTCGCTCCTGGAAGAT(SEQ ID NO:16) and the PCR probe was: 5′ JOE-AAGGCCGAGAATGGGAAGCTTGTCATC— TAMRA 3′ (SEQ ID NO: 17) where JOE is the fluorescent reporter dye and TAMRA is the quencher dye.

Example 14 Northern Blot Analysis of Growth Hormone Receptor mRNA Levels

Eighteen hours after antisense treatment, cell monolayers were washed twice with cold PBS and lysed in 1 mL RNAZOL™ (TEL-TEST “B” Inc., Friendswood, Tex.). Total RNA was prepared following manufacturer's recommended protocols. Twenty micrograms of total RNA was fractionated by electrophoresis through 1.2% agarose gels containing 1.1% formaldehyde using a MOPS buffer system (AMRESCO, Inc. Solon, Ohio). RNA was transferred from the gel to HYBOND™-N+ nylon membranes (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech, Piscataway, N.J.) by overnight capillary transfer using a Northern/Southern Transfer buffer system (TEL-TEST “B” Inc., Friendswood, Tex.). RNA transfer was confirmed by UV visualization. Membranes were fixed by UV cross-linking using a STRATALINKER™ UV Crosslinker 2400 (Stratagene, Inc, La Jolla, Calif.) and then probed using QUICKHYB™ hybridization solution (Stratagene, La Jolla, Calif.) using manufacturer's recommendations for stringent conditions.

To detect human growth hormone receptor, a human growth hormone receptor specific probe was prepared by PCR using the forward primer GATGTCCCAATGTGACATGCA (SEQ ID NO: 5) and the reverse primer AAGTAGGCATTGTCCATAAGGAAGTT (SEQ ID NO: 6). To normalize for variations in loading and transfer efficiency membranes were stripped and probed for human glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) RNA (Clontech, Palo Alto, Calif.).

To detect mouse growth hormone receptor, a mouse growth hormone receptor specific probe was prepared by PCR using the forward primer TTGACGAAATAGTGCAACCTGATC (SEQ ID NO: 12) and the reverse primer CGAATCCCGGTCAAACTAATG (SEQ ID NO: 13). To normalize for variations in loading and transfer efficiency membranes were stripped and probed for mouse glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) RNA (Clontech, Palo Alto, Calif.).

Hybridized membranes were visualized and quantitated using a PHOSPHORIMAGER™ and IMAGEQUANT™ Software V3.3 (Molecular Dynamics, Sunnyvale, Calif.). Data was normalized to GAPDH levels in untreated controls.

Example 15 Antisense Inhibition of Human Growth Hormone Receptor Expression by Chimeric Phosphorothioate Oligonucleotides Having 2′-MOE Wings and a Deoxy Gap

In accordance with the present invention, a series of antisense compounds were designed to target different regions of the human growth hormone receptor RNA, using published sequences (GenBank accession number NM_(—)000163.1, incorporated herein as SEQ ID NO: 4, and the complement of positions 468085 to 502183 of the sequence with GenBank accession number NT_(—)006702.8, incorporated herein as SEQ ID NO: 18). The compounds are shown in Table 1. “Target site” indicates the first (5′-most) nucleotide number on the particular target sequence to which the compound binds. All compounds in Table 1 are chimeric oligonucleotides (“gapmers”) 20 nucleotides in length, composed of a central “gap” region consisting of ten 2′-deoxynucleotides, which is flanked on both sides (5′ and 3′ directions) by five-nucleotide “wings”. The wings are composed of 2′-methoxyethyl (2′-MOE)nucleotides. The internucleoside (backbone) linkages are phosphorothioate (P═S) throughout the oligonucleotide. All cytidine residues are 5-methylcytidines. The compounds were analyzed for their effect on human growth hormone receptor mRNA levels by quantitative real-time PCR as described in other examples herein. Data are averages from three experiments in which MCF₇ cells were treated with the antisense oligonucleotides of the present invention. The positive control for each datapoint is identified in the table by sequence ID number. If present, “N.D.” indicates “no data”.

TABLE 1 Inhibition of human growth hormone receptor mRNA levels by chimeric phosphorothioate oligonucleotides having 2′-MOE  wings and a deoxy gap TARGET SEQ CONTROL SEQ ID TARGET % ID SEQ ID ISIS # REGION NO SITE SEQUENCE INHIB NO NO 227452 Coding  4   332 tcagggcattctttccattc 79 19 1 227453 Coding  4   337 cataatcagggcattctttc 52 20 1 227464 Coding  4   947 cctttaatctttggaactgg 58 21 1 227468 Coding  4  1079 tcatcaatatctagctcaat 62 22 1 227469 Coding  4  1124 cttagaagtctgtctgtgtc 63 23 1 227475 Coding  4  1514 cctgctggtgtaatgtcgct 68 24 1 227480 Coding  4  1724 atgtaaatgtcctcttggtt 66 25 1 227481 Coding  4  1729 tggtgatgtaaatgtcctct 45 26 1 227482 Coding  4  1734 ttctgtggtgatgtaaatgt 53 27 1 227483 Coding  4  1739 aggctttctgtggtgatgta 75 28 1 227484 Coding  4  1744 tggtaaggctttctgtggtg 63 29 1 227488 Coding  4  1922 agttggtctgtgctcacata 86 30 1 227489 Coding  4  1927 tgttcagttggtctgtgctc 75 31 1 227490 Coding  4  1936 gcatgattttgttcagttgg 67 32 1 227499 3′UTR  4  2656 tataaaagggctttgtaaaa 14 33 1 227500 3′UTR  4  4043 catagcagcaaagtagcaga 69 34 1 227501 3′UTR  4  4183 gctatttttggctatagaaa 64 35 1 227502 3′UTR  4  4197 gattgaggtatttagctatt 56 36 1 272302 Start  4    31 gatccatacctgtaggacct 60 37 1 Codon 272303 Start  4    36 ccagagatccatacctgtag 55 38 1 Codon 272304 Coding  4   115 tgctaaggatagctgctgtg 48 39 1 272305 Coding  4   160 ttgtctttaggcctggatta 68 40 1 272306 Coding  4   170 ttagaagaatttgtctttag 13 41 1 272307 Coding  4   185 gtgaatttaggctccttaga 55 42 1 272308 Coding  4   274 gctgtatgggtcctaggttc 57 43 1 272309 Coding  4   362 taacagctgttttccccagc 85 44 1 272310 Coding  4   439 tttcatccactgtaccacca 76 45 1 272311 Coding  4   468 ttgcactatttcatcaacag 47 46 1 272312 Coding  4   480 gggtggatctggttgcacta 57 47 1 272313 Coding  4   564 attgcgtggtgcttcccatc 77 48 1 272314 Coding  4   652 tagggtccatcattttccat 56 49 1 272315 Coding  4   684 caatgagtacactggaactg 53 50 1 272316 Coding  4   752 aactcgccataatttccaga 64 51 1 272317 Coding  4   857 agcccaaatattccaaagat 65 52 1 272318 Coding  4   913 tcagcattttaatcctttgc 55 53 1 272319 Coding  4   979 attttccttccttgaggaga 67 54 1 272320 Coding  4  1000 agattgtgttcacctcctct 70 55 1 272321 Coding  4  1053 aacccaagagtcatcactgt 64 56 1 272322 Coding  4  1084 ctggctcatcaatatctagc 84 57 1 272323 Coding  4  1110 tgtgtctgattcctcagtct 67 58 1 272324 Coding  4  1236 tatgtcattggcattgaaat 53 59 1 272325 Coding  4  1302 aaggcataagagatctgctt 66 60 1 272326 Coding  4  1420 actcagctccttcagtagga 77 61 1 272327 Coding  4  1560 ggacatccctgccttattct 60 62 1 272328 Coding  4  1623 ggcattgtccataaggaagt 85 63 1 272329 Coding  4  1651 actttttggcatctgcctca 63 64 1 272330 Coding  4  1656 gatgcactttttggcatctg 47 65 1 272331 Coding  4  1861 cagtcgcattgagtatgagg 67 66 1 272332 Coding  4  1884 ctctttgtcaggcaagggca 75 67 1 272333 Coding  4  1913 gtgctcacatagccacatga 72 68 1 272334 Stop  4  1949 aagaaaggctaaggcatgat 61 69 1 Codon 272335 3′UTR  4  1973 aaatacgtagctcttgggaa 47 70 1 272336 3′UTR  4  2196 caatcactgctactaaacag 69 71 1 272337 3′UTR  4  2249 aaacatagccattcaatgct 39 72 1 272338 3′UTR  4  2337 gtgctatggtttgcattcaa 78 73 1 272339 3′UTR  4  2454 gttttacatatccaaactat 72 74 1 272340 3′UTR  4  2853 catcaaccaagatttggtga 69 75 1 272341 3′UTR  4  2988 gaggctatagatcttatctc 65 76 1 272342 3′UTR  4  3271 tagtgagaaagaaagtttct 45 77 1 272343 3′UTR  4  3765 aatgctctcaagaatgatgt 48 78 1 272344 3′UTR  4  3980 acactcaattctagcttttc 60 79 1 272345 3′UTR  4  4011 catctattacaaataacatg 24 80 1 272346 3′UTR  4  4057 ctcttggagaaaaccatagc 67 81 1 272347 3′UTR  4  4097 tctacactgatgatacttta 62 82 1 272348 3′UTR  4  4120 cacagctttgaattgaatta 57 83 1 272349 3′UTR  4  4133 agtcttccaaacacacagct 68 84 1 272350 3′UTR  4  4156 aggctgttgtgaaatagtaa 67 85 1 272351 3′UTR  4  4170 atagaaatgttgtcaggctg 57 86 1 272352 3′UTR  4  4218 ccaaaatgacattctgagac 77 87 1 272353 3′UTR  4  4245 ataatggcttatgtggccac 72 88 1 272354 intron 18  2571 agttatgtgaccctgattga 65 89 1 272355 intron: 18  6418 ttgagtgttcctaaaatgaa 24 90 1 exon junction 272356 intron 18  8405 atggaggctggaggttcaaa 63 91 1 272357 intron: 18 22712 tagggtccatctttcaagac 62 92 1 exon junction 272358 intron 18 25543 tctccagatagaatctaaac 53 93 1 272359 intron 18 29755 tccaaatattctggtacttt 72 94 1 272360 exon: 18 29935 tattagttaccttgaggaga  0 95 1 intron junction 272361 intron: 18 30267 attttccttcctagaaaata 10 96 1 exon junction

As shown in Table 1, SEQ ID NOs 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 91, 92, 93 and 94 demonstrated at least 45% inhibition of human growth hormone receptor expression in this assay and are therefore preferred. More preferred are SEQ ID NOs 30, 44 and 57.

ISIS 272322 (SEQ ID NO: 57) is targeted to exon 10, a region which appears in all growth hormone receptor transcripts. Compounds targeted to exon 10 are therefore preferred embodiments of the invention. Exon 3, reported to be alternatively spliced in the human transcript(s), may also be a preferred target region.

The target regions to which the preferred antisense sequences of Table 2 are complementary are herein referred to as “preferred target segments” and are therefore preferred for targeting by compounds of the present invention. These preferred target segments are shown in Table 3. The sequences represent the reverse complement of the preferred antisense compounds shown in Table 1. “Target site” indicates the first (5′-most) nucleotide number on the particular target nucleic acid to which the oligonucleotide binds. Also shown in Table 3 is the species in which each of the preferred target segments was found.

Example 16 Antisense Inhibition of Mouse Growth Hormone Receptor Expression by Chimeric Phosphorothioate Oligonucleotides Having 2′-MOE Wings and a Deoxy Gap

In accordance with the present invention, a second series of antisense compounds were designed to target different regions of the mouse growth hormone receptor RNA, using published sequences (GenBank accession number NM_(—)010284.1, incorporated herein as SEQ ID NO: 11, a variant of GenBank accession number AF120480.2 with an alternative splice site from exon 1B:exon 2, incorporated herein as SEQ ID NO: 97, a variant of GenBank accession number AF120480.2 with an alternative splice site at from exon 1C:exon 2, incorporated herein as SEQ ID NO: 98, a variant of GenBank accession number AF120480.2 with an alternative splice site from exon 1D:exon 2, incorporated herein as SEQ ID NO: 99, and a sequence derived from GenBank accession numbers AF120480.2 and AC073753.1, representing a genomic sequence, incorporated herein as SEQ ID NO: 100). The compounds are shown in Table 2. “Target site” indicates the first (5′-most) nucleotide number on the particular target nucleic acid to which the compound binds. All compounds in Table 2 are chimeric oligonucleotides (“gapmers”) 20 nucleotides in length, composed of a central “gap” region consisting of ten 2′-deoxynucleotides, which is flanked on both sides (5′ and 3′ directions) by five-nucleotide “wings”. The wings are composed of 2′-methoxyethyl (2′-MOE)nucleotides. The internucleoside (backbone) linkages are phosphorothioate (P═S) throughout the oligonucleotide. All cytidine residues are 5-methylcytidines. The compounds were analyzed for their effect on mouse growth hormone receptor mRNA levels by quantitative real-time PCR as described in other examples herein. Data are averages from three experiments in which b.END cells were treated with the antisense oligonucleotides of the present invention. The positive control for each datapoint is identified in the table by sequence ID number. If present, “N.D.” indicates “no data”.

TABLE 2 Inhibition of mouse growth hormone receptor mRNA levels by chimeric phosphorothioate oligonucleotides having 2′-MOE  wings and a deoxy gap TARGET SEQ CONTROL SEQ ID TARGET % ID SEQ ID ISIS # REGION NO SITE SEQUENCE INHIB NO NO 227443 5′UTR  11     5 tgcttggcagctcgtgggtt  0 101 1 227444 5′UTR  11    16 atggctgcgcctgcttggca 53 102 1 227445 Start  11   221 tacctgagacctcggagttt 69 103 1 Codon 227446 Start  11   232 acaaagatccatacctgaga 87 104 1 Codon 227447 Coding  11   300 gctggtgtagcctcacttcc 77 105 1 227448 Coding  11   313 tttgccaagagtagctggtg 60 106 1 227449 Coding  11   391 acgacacttggtgaatcgag 69 107 1 227450 Coding  11   495 tggctttcccttttagcata 71 108 1 227451 Coding  11   520 atgagcaattcttgcagctt 49 109 1 227454 Coding  11   590 agttgaagtaacagctgttt 69 110 1 227455 Coding  11   620 agtagggtatccaaatggag 43 111 1 227456 Coding  11   717 gtccagttgaggccaatggg 97 112 1 227457 Coding  11   812 gaattatccatcccttcaga 67 113 1 227458 Coding  11   832 gtactgaatttcatactcca 75 114 1 227459 Coding  11   975 ctgaactcgctgtacttttc 60 115 1 227460 Coding  11  1041 aactggatatcttcttcaca 43 116 1 227461 Coding  11  1084 tgctactccaaatattccaa 75 117 1 227462 Coding  11  1115 gctttgaaaatataactaca 31 118 1 227463 Coding  11  1137 atcagcatcttaatcctttg 39 119 1 227465 Coding  11  1190 tgagaagatctggatcaatc 51 120 1 227466 Coding  11  1245 ttgtagttatcatgaatgcc 50 121 1 227467 Coding  11  1265 catcattgtagaagtcgggt 33 122 1 227470 Coding  11  1388 ctccaaggataccagctgat 82 123 1 227471 Coding  11  1530 aggcacaagagatcagcttc 52 124 1 227472 Coding  11  1579 agagccaagggaagcatcat 42 125 1 227473 Coding  11  1710 aagtcaatgtttgccagtga 71 126 1 227474 Coding  11  1730 tgtcgcttacttgggcataa 68 127 1 227476 Coding  11  1837 gtaattttcttggcagggcg 41 128 1 227477 Coding  11  1850 cactgttcatgctgtaattt 61 129 1 227478 Coding  11  1878 tttttggcatctgactcaca 68 130 1 227479 Coding  11  1947 atgtcctcttggttaaagct 59 131 1 227485 Coding  11  2044 cgtggtgtagtctgggacag 45 132 1 227486 Coding  11  2054 cggtgtgaaccgtggtgtag 39 133 1 227487 Coding  11  2106 tcaggcaaaggcaaagcagt 44 134 1 227491 Stop  11  2182 taggaaaggctactgcatga 65 135 1 Codon 227492 3′UTR  11  2239 taaaacatagttttggttta  7 136 1 227493 3′UTR  11  2253 tcccaacacagatttaaaac 51 137 1 227494 3′UTR  11  2517 caaaagccacctgattgttt 56 138 1 227495 3′UTR  11  2527 tcctgaactgcaaaagccac 47 139 1 227496 3′UTR  11  2537 gcattcaatttcctgaactg 51 140 1 227497 3′UTR  11  2637 taaatgttttgcatatccaa 77 141 1 227498 3′UTR  11  2824 ttgtaaaaatctaacttgtt 49 142 1 227503 exon:  97   197 tacctgagaccccagttcat 24 143 1 exon junction 227504 exon:  98    23 tacctgagaccccgcgcagc 34 144 1 exon junction 227505 exon:  99    61 tacctgagacccacaagcgg 39 145 1 exon junction 227506 exon: 100  4352 cctccagtacctcggagttt 69 146 1 intron junction 227507 intron: 100  4865 gtccttgctccaggttagca 89 147 1 exon junction 227508 exon: 100  5071 ttccactcaccccagttcat 51 148 1 intron junction 227509 intron: 100  5153 gcagttctatcagaactttg 82 149 1 exon junction 227510 intron 100  5196 ctccagacgtgacccgactc 64 150 1 227511 exon: 100  5264 ccacgcacccacaagcggat 71 151 1 intron junction 227512 intron 100  6350 taacctatggtgactatgtc 36 152 1 227513 intron: 100  7123 tacctgagacctgcaagaca 40 153 1 exon junction 227514 intron 100  9753 atgctcacgtcagctattgg 43 154 1 227515 exon: 100 13932 aaattcttacttgtccccag 37 155 1 intron junction 227516 intron: 100 17200 ttggctttccctggaggttc 57 156 1 exon junction 227517 exon: 100 17224 cttcactaaccttgcagctt 63 157 1 intron junction 227518 exon: 100 24259 cacggcttacctatttcgtc  6 158 1 intron junction 227519 exon: 100 37843 tcacacctacctttgctgct 44 159 1 intron junction 227520 intron: 100 40862 catcttaatccttggaaaca 42 160 1 exon junction

As shown in Table 2, SEQ ID NOs 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 110, 112, 113, 114, 115, 117, 120, 121, 123, 124, 126, 127, 129, 130, 131, 135, 137, 138, 140, 141, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 156 and 157 demonstrated at least 50% inhibition of mouse growth hormone receptor expression in this experiment and are therefore preferred. More preferred are SEQ ID NOs 104, 147, and 149.

ISIS 227446, 227507 and 227509 (SEQ ID NO: 104, 147 and 149) were subjected to dose-response studies. All three compounds showed good dose responses with IC50s of approximately 25 nM, 12.5 nM and 12.5 nM, respectively.

The target regions to which the preferred antisense sequences of Table 2 are complementary are herein referred to as “preferred target segments” and are therefore preferred for targeting by compounds of the present invention. These preferred target segments are shown in Table 3. The sequences represent the reverse complement of the preferred antisense compounds shown in Table 2. “Target site” indicates the first (5′-most) nucleotide number on the particular target nucleic acid to which the oligonucleotide binds. Also shown in Table 3 is the species in which each of the preferred target segments was found.

TABLE 3 Sequence and position of preferred target segments identified in growth hormone receptor. TARGET REV COMP SEQ SITE SEQ ID TARGET OF ACTIVE ID ID NO SITE SEQUENCE SEQ ID IN NO 144070   4   332 gaatggaaagaatgccctga  19 H. sapiens 161 144071   4   337 gaaagaatgccctgattatg  20 H. sapiens 162 144082   4   947 ccagttccaaagattaaagg  21 H. sapiens 163 144086   4  1079 attgagctagatattgatga  22 H. sapiens 164 144087   4  1124 gacacagacagacttctaag  23 H. sapiens 165 144093   4  1514 agcgacattacaccagcagg  24 H. sapiens 166 144098   4  1724 aaccaagaggacatttacat  25 H. sapiens 167 144099   4  1729 agaggacatttacatcacca  26 H. sapiens 168 144100   4  1734 acatttacatcaccacagaa  27 H. sapiens 169 144101   4  1739 tacatcaccacagaaagcct  28 H. sapiens 170 144102   4  1744 caccacagaaagccttacca  29 H. sapiens 171 144106   4  1922 tatgtgagcacagaccaact  30 H. sapiens 172 144107   4  1927 gagcacagaccaactgaaca  31 H. sapiens 173 144108   4  1936 ccaactgaacaaaatcatgc  32 H. sapiens 174 144118   4  4043 tctgctactttgctgctatg  34 H. sapiens 175 144119   4  4183 tttctatagccaaaaatagc  35 H. sapiens 176 144120   4  4197 aatagctaaatacctcaatc  36 H. sapiens 177 188518   4    31 aggtcctacaggtatggatc  37 H. sapiens 178 188519   4    36 ctacaggtatggatctctgg  38 H. sapiens 179 188520   4   115 cacagcagctatccttagca  39 H. sapiens 180 188521   4   160 taatccaggcctaaagacaa  40 H. sapiens 181 188523   4   185 tctaaggagcctaaattcac  42 H. sapiens 182 188524   4   274 gaacctaggacccatacagc  43 H. sapiens 183 188525   4   362 gctggggaaaacagctgtta  44 H. sapiens 184 188526   4   439 tggtggtacagtggatgaaa  45 H. sapiens 185 188527   4   468 ctgttgatgaaatagtgcaa  46 H. sapiens 186 188528   4   480 tagtgcaaccagatccaccc  47 H. sapiens 187 188529   4   564 gatgggaagcaccacgcaat  48 H. sapiens 188 188530   4   652 atggaaaatgatggacccta  49 H. sapiens 189 188531   4   684 cagttccagtgtactcattg  50 H. sapiens 190 188532   4   752 tctggaaattatggcgagtt  51 H. sapiens 191 188533   4   857 atctttggaatatttgggct  52 H. sapiens 192 188534   4   913 gcaaaggattaaaatgctga  53 H. sapiens 193 188535   4   979 tctcctcaaggaaggaaaat  54 H. sapiens 194 188536   4  1000 agaggaggtgaacacaatct  55 H. sapiens 195 188537   4  1053 acagtgatgactcttgggtt  56 H. sapiens 196 188538   4  1084 gctagatattgatgagccag  57 H. sapiens 197 188539   4  1110 agactgaggaatcagacaca  58 H. sapiens 198 188540   4  1236 atttcaatgccaatgacata  59 H. sapiens 199 188541   4  1302 aagcagatctcttatgcctt  60 H. sapiens 200 188542   4  1420 tcctactgaaggagctgagt  61 H. sapiens 201 188543   4  1560 agaataaggcagggatgtcc  62 H. sapiens 202 188544   4  1623 acttccttatggacaatgcc  63 H. sapiens 203 188545   4  1651 tgaggcagatgccaaaaagt  64 H. sapiens 204 188546   4  1656 cagatgccaaaaagtgcatc  65 H. sapiens 205 188547   4  1861 cctcatactcaatgcgactg  66 H. sapiens 206 188548   4  1884 tgcccttgcctgacaaagag  67 H. sapiens 207 188549   4  1913 tcatgtggctatgtgagcac  68 H. sapiens 208 188550   4  1949 atcatgccttagcctttctt  69 H. sapiens 209 188551   4  1973 ttcccaagagctacgtattt  70 H. sapiens 210 188552   4  2196 ctgtttagtagcagtgattg  71 H. sapiens 211 188554   4  2337 ttgaatgcaaaccatagcac  73 H. sapiens 212 188555   4  2454 atagtttggatatgtaaaac  74 H. sapiens 213 188556   4  2853 tcaccaaatcttggttgatg  75 H. sapiens 214 188557   4  2988 gagataagatctatagcctc  76 H. sapiens 215 188558   4  3271 agaaactttctttctcacta  77 H. sapiens 216 188559   4  3765 acatcattcttgagagcatt  78 H. sapiens 217 188560   4  3980 gaaaagctagaattgagtgt  79 H. sapiens 218 188562   4  4057 gctatggttttctccaagag  81 H. sapiens 219 188563   4  4097 taaagtatcatcagtgtaga  82 H. sapiens 220 188564   4  4120 taattcaattcaaagctgtg  83 H. sapiens 221 188565   4  4133 agctgtgtgtttggaagact  84 H. sapiens 222 188566   4  4156 ttactatttcacaacagcct  85 H. sapiens 223 188567   4  4170 cagcctgacaacatttctat  86 H. sapiens 224 188568   4  4218 gtctcagaatgtcattttgg  87 H. sapiens 225 188569   4  4245 gtggccacataagccattat  88 H. sapiens 226 188570  18  2571 tcaatcagggtcacataact  89 H. sapiens 227 188572   18  8405 tttgaacctccagcctccat  91 H. sapiens 228 188573  18 22712 gtcttgaaagatggacccta  92 H. sapiens 229 188574  18 25543 gtttagattctatctggaga  93 H. sapiens 230 188575  18 29755 aaagtaccagaatatttgga  94 H. sapiens 231 144062  11    16 tgccaagcaggcgcagccat 102 M. musculus 232 144063  11   221 aaactccgaggtctcaggta 103 M. musculus 233 144064  11   232 tctcaggtatggatctttgt 104 M. musculus 234 144065  11   300 ggaagtgaggctacaccagc 105 M. musculus 235 144066  11   313 caccagctactcttggcaaa 106 M. musculus 236 144067  11   391 ctcgattcaccaagtgtcgt 107 M. musculus 237 144068  11   495 tatgctaaaagggaaagcca 108 M. musculus 238 144072  11   590 aaacagctgttacttcaact 110 M. musculus 239 144074  11   717 cccattggcctcaactggac 112 M. musculus 240 144075  11   812 tctgaagggatggataattc 113 M. musculus 241 144076  11   832 tggagtatgaaattcagtac 114 M. musculus 242 144077  11   975 gaaaagtacagcgagttcag 115 M. musculus 243 144079  11  1084 ttggaatatttggagtagca 117 M. musculus 244 144083  11  1190 gattgatccagatcttctca 120 M. musculus 245 144084  11  1245 ggcattcatgataactacaa 121 M. musculus 246 144088  11  1388 atcagctggtatccttggag 123 M. musculus 247 144089  11  1530 gaagctgatctcttgtgcct 124 M. musculus 248 144091  11  1710 tcactggcaaacattgactt 126 M. musculus 249 144092  11  1730 ttatgcccaagtaagcgaca 127 M. musculus 250 144095  11  1850 aaattacagcatgaacagtg 129 M. musculus 251 144096  11  1878 tgtgagtcagatgccaaaaa 130 M. musculus 252 144097  11  1947 agctttaaccaagaggacat 131 M. musculus 253 144109  11  2182 tcatgcagtagcctttccta 135 M. musculus 254 144111  11  2253 gttttaaatctgtgttggga 137 M. musculus 255 144112  11  2517 aaacaatcaggtggcttttg 138 M. musculus 256 144114  11  2537 cagttcaggaaattgaatgc 140 M. musculus 257 144115  11  2637 ttggatatgcaaaacattta 141 M. musculus 258 144124 100  4352 aaactccgaggtactggagg 146 M. musculus 259 144125 100  4865 tgctaacctggagcaaggac 147 M. musculus 260 144126 100  5071 atgaactggggtgagtggaa 148 M. musculus 261 144127 100  5153 caaagttctgatagaactgc 149 M. musculus 262 144128 100  5196 gagtcgggtcacgtctggag 150 M. musculus 263 144129 100  5264 atccgcttgtgggtgcgtgg 151 M. musculus 264 144134 100 17200 gaacctccagggaaagccaa 156 M. musculus 265 144135 100 17224 aagctgcaaggttagtgaag 157 M. musculus 266

As these “preferred target segments” have been found by experimentation to be open to, and accessible for, hybridization with the antisense compounds of the present invention, one of skill in the art will recognize or be able to ascertain, using no more than routine experimentation, further embodiments of the invention that encompass other compounds that specifically hybridize to these preferred target segments and consequently inhibit the expression of growth hormone receptor.

According to the present invention, antisense compounds include antisense oligomeric compounds, antisense oligonucleotides, ribozymes, external guide sequence (EGS) oligonucleotides, alternate splicers, primers, probes, and other short oligomeric compounds which hybridize to at least a portion of the target nucleic acid.

Example 17 Western Blot Analysis of Growth Hormone Receptor Protein Levels

Western blot analysis (immunoblot analysis) is carried out using standard methods. Cells are harvested 16-20 h after oligonucleotide treatment, washed once with PBS, suspended in Laemmli buffer (100 ul/well), boiled for 5 minutes and loaded on a 16% SDS-PAGE gel. Gels are run for 1.5 hours at 150 V, and transferred to membrane for western blotting. Appropriate primary antibody directed to growth hormone receptor is used, with a radiolabeled or fluorescently labeled secondary antibody directed against the primary antibody species. Bands are visualized using a PHOSPHORIMAGER™ (Molecular Dynamics, Sunnyvale Calif.).

Example 18 Reduction of Serum IGF-I in Animals after Treatment with Antisense to Growth Hormone Receptor-1 Week Pilot Study

Forty male Balb/C(a) mice weighing 9 to 10 g were placed into cages, 4 animals per cage, and allowed to assimilate into their environment with new littermates ˜1 week prior (Day −7) to the commencement of 1 week study. Mice of this age would be at their maximum growth rate. Their body weights were measured and recorded every second day during this period. When mice weighed 11 g (day −2), a blood sample was collected under anesthesia as described below, and a serum IGF-I assay was performed to determine pre-treatment values and to aid in the assigning of mice to treatment groups in order to reduce animal variability. To obtain the blood sample, the animals were anaesthetized with pentobarbital (50 mg/kg i.p.) and non-fasting blood samples collected exactly 5 minutes later from the retrobulbar plexus through heparinized capillary tubes under light ether anesthesia. The 40 animals were placed into five groups with each group having a similar weight average and similar IGF-I average concentration for the trial.

Animals (n=8/group) were designated to the following five treatment groups:

Control—saline (once every 2 days)

ASO (Antisense to growth hormone receptor)—ISIS 227446 (SEQ ID NO: 104) (3 and 30 mg/kg once every 2 days)

Mismatch (negative control oligonucleotide)—ISIS 261303 (SEQ ID NO: 267, 8-base mismatch to ISIS 227446) (30 mg/kg once every 2 days)

Octreotide—(25 μg/kg/twice per day)

Saline, antisense, mismatch control and octreotide samples were prepared, and coded for blinding. Animals were given a subcutaneous dose of saline every second day, and mismatch control or antisense with administration on days 0, 2, 4, 6. Animals were given twice daily doses of 25 μg octreotide. Animals were housed 4 per cage, for the duration of one week. They had access to a pre-determined quantity of standard mouse food and water at all times throughout the experiment. They were housed in a quiet, temperature- and humidity-maintained environment for the entirety of the study. At day 0 and before treatment on each day or second day, the animals had their body weight and food intake measured, enabling the correct dose of agent to be administered. The animals were monitored closely for any changes in fur, skin, eye, locomotion or other changes in behavior. No problems were observed. Every second day from day −7 to day 7 body weight and food intake were measured.

On day 7, one day after the last dose of antisense, and/or after the last octreotide dose, the animals were anaesthetized with pentobarbital (50 mg/kg i.p.) and non-fasting blood samples collected exactly 5 minutes later from the retrobulbar plexus through heparinized capillary tubes under light ether anesthesia (as on day −7 and 0).

At day −2 and day 7, serum IGF-I measurement was done by radioimmunoassay. The results are shown in Table 4. Serum IGF-I level is the most widely used measure of growth hormone biological activity in human therapy. It is used to measure the efficacy of growth hormone antagonist treatments like Trovert, which block cells' responsiveness to excess growth hormone, and dopamine agonists and octreotide somatostatin antagonist drugs that block growth hormone secretion from the pituitary.

TABLE 4 Effect of antisense inhibitor of growth hormone receptor on serum insulin-like growth factor-I levels IGF-I (ng/ml) IGF-I (ng/ml) % IGF-I Day −2 Day 7 reduction* Saline Control 217.09 ± 42.61 102.64 ± 31.64 0 Octreotide 199.72 ± 44.47 114.34 ± 41.36 — ASO 3 mg/kg 216.23 ± 78.14 129.63 ± 33.76 — ASO 30 mg/kg 181.84 ± 71.32  56.95 ± 10.34 44.51 Mismatch 184.87 ± 55.6   81.1 ± 19.16 20.98 30 mg/kg *Percent reduction in serum IGF-I at day 7 compared to saline control at day 7.

As shown in Table 4, the growth hormone receptor antisense compound, ISIS 227446 (SEQ ID NO: 104, dosed subcutaneously at 30 mg/kg every second day for one week, produced a statistically significant and specific reduction of serum IGF-1 to 55% of the control (saline) group. By t-test the antisense 30 mg/kg was significantly different from the saline control (p<0.005) and the mismatch control (p<0.01). The mismatch control was not statistically different from the saline control (p>0.05). There was no effect at 3 mg/kg. The 45% reduction in serum IGF-I levels in our study using 30 mg/kg antisense every second day is comparable to that achieved using 10 mg/kg daily Trovert (Van Neck et al., J. Endocrinol., 2000, 167, 295-303).

The negative control 8-nucleotide mismatch oligonucleotide ISIS 261303 (SEQ ID NO: 267), reduced serum IGF-I by 21% compared to the control saline group, however, this reduction was not statistically significant (with p>0.05). Octreotide, 2 doses per day at 25 pg each had no effect on serum IGF-I levels at day 7. The non-effect obtained with octreotide is consistent with data reported by Groenbaek et al. (J. Endocrinol., 2002, 172, 637-643) using this dose and twice this dose at day 7 in diabetic animals. In diabetic animals two 50 μg doses of octreotide per day for two weeks are required to reduce sIGF-I levels.

Thus an antisense inhibitor of growth hormone receptor has now been demonstrated to specifically reduce serum insulin-like growth factor-I levels by 45% compared to control. Reduction of serum insulin-like growth factor-I by similar levels using octreotide or Trovert, are clinically relevant in the treatment of diseases including acromegaly, gigantism, age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, diabetic nephropathy, diabetes, and growth hormone and IGF-1-dependent tumors as outlined supra. Thus antisense therapy is believed to be therapeutically useful for treatment of conditions associated with the growth hormone/insulin-like growth factor-I axis.

The serum remaining following the insulin-like growth factor-1 assay was isolated and stored at −80° C. The whole liver was removed rapidly for weighing and snap-frozen in labelled aluminum parcels by submersion in liquid-nitrogen. Kidney and spleen were also snap frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at −80° C. in the freezer. The carcass was weighed and then placed into a sealable plastic bag, snap-frozen on dry ice and kept at −80° C.

The decline in serum insulin-like growth factor-I with 30 mg/kg of antisense was not sufficient to influence body weight or organ weights over this period. This confirms published results of others. Van Neck et al., J. Endocrinol., 2000, 167, 295-303. Looking at the study overall, body length increase during the study was in the range 7.5-10%. Tail length increases were in proportion to overall length increases. Food intake did not vary significantly between treatment groups. Growth (body length and weight) were unaffected by any treatment. Weight was measured in two ways: weight trend (live animal), and final carcass weight. Absolute liver weights were unchanged except for a slight increase in liver weight (g/total body weight) for the octreotide group. Weights of other organs were unaffected. These observations were similar to those reported by van Neck et al. with Trovert except that liver weight was unaffected by Trovert, as also observed with growth hormone receptor antisense.

Growth hormone receptor mRNA levels in tissue samples from our current study are assayed from liver and kidney to test for an RNase H-based antisense mechanism of action. Growth hormone receptor protein levels by Western or binding assays in tissue samples from our current study are assayed from liver and/or kidney to test for additional and/or alternative antisense mechanisms of action. Liver contributes to 75% of serum insulin-like growth factor-I levels as shown in growth hormone receptor knockout animals of Sjogren et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 1999, 96, 7088-7092. Sample analysis of the liver and kidney insulin-like growth factor-I by Western and Northern blot total RNA analysis or quantitative PCR is also done as would be understood by those skilled in the art.

Example 19 Reduction of Growth Hormone Receptor Activity in Animals After Treatment with Antisense to Growth Hormone Receptor

Specific binding assays were carried out with liver tissue using iodinated human growth hormone [¹²⁵I] hGH.

Microsomal membrane preparations were obtained as follows. 400 mg of tissue powder was homogenized in cold homogenizing buffer (50 mM Tris/HCl, 250 mM sucrose, pH 7.4). This was centrifuged at 2000 rpm for 10 min at 3° C. and the supernatant was saved. This was centrifuged again at 15,000 rpm for 20 min. Pellets were resuspended in 0.5 ml of RRA buffer with inhibitor (50 mM Tris, 20 mM MgC12, pH 7.4). Microsomal preparation samples were stored at −80° C. until the specific binding assay.

The [¹²⁵I] hGH specific binding assay was done as follows. Four glass tubes were set up for each sample, two for (−), two for (+). Different sample and solutions were added in each tube as follows (i) 0.2 ml RRA buffer (50 mM Tris, 20 mM MgCl₂, 0.1% BSA, pH 7.4); (ii) 0.1 ml membrane (1/2 or 1/4 dilution); (iii) 0.1 ml bGH (10 μg/ml) for the (+) tube or 0.1 ml RRA buffer for the (−) tube; and (iv) 0.1 ml [¹²⁵I]-hGH tracer.

Samples were incubated at 4° C. with shaking overnight. The reaction was stopped with 2.5 ml of cold RRA, and the sample centrifuged at 2800 rpm for 25 min at 4° C. Supernatant was aspirated and pellets counted using the γ-counter. The specific binding capacity was calculated as: CPM(−)-CPM(+) Protein content of the microsomal samples was determined by the BCA protein assay.

TABLE 5 Effect of antisense inhibitor on growth hormone receptor growth hormone binding activity Specific binding/mg Specific binding/mg protein (cpm) protein (cpm) ½ dilution ¼ dilution Saline Control 5647 ± 746 9071 ± 2371 ASO 30 mg/kg     4205 ± 534 (26%    5546 ± 789 (39% reduction compared reduction compared to saline) to saline) Mismatch 30 mg/kg  7090 ± 1877 8431 ± 2663

As shown in Table 5, the growth hormone receptor antisense compound, ISIS 227446 (SEQ ID NO: 104, dosed subcutaneously at 30 mg/kg every second day for one week, produced a statistically significant (p<0.05) and specific reduction of growth hormone receptor levels (measured by growth hormone binding activity) to 61% of control (saline) group. The negative control 8-nucleotide mismatch oligonucleotide ISIS 261303 (SEQ ID NO: 267) had no effect compared to the control saline group. The antisense inhibitor of growth hormone receptor produced a statistically significant (p<0.01) and specific reduction of growth hormone receptor levels to 59% of the control (mismatch) group in the ½ dilution experiment.

The specific reduction of growth hormone receptor levels was significantly (by t-test) different from both the saline control and the mismatch control at both dilutions (p<0.05).

These growth hormone receptor level measurements following antisense treatment are consistent with the 45% reduction in serum insulin-like growth factor-I levels in our study using 30 mg/kg antisense every second day relative to control (saline).

Example 20 Reduction of Growth Hormone Receptor mRNA Levels and Serum IGF-I in Animals after Treatment with Antisense to Growth Hormone Receptor—Additional 1 Week Study

Male Balb/C(a) mice were prepared and grouped for analysis as in Example 18 above.

Animals (n=10/group) were designated to the following treatment groups:

Control—saline (once every 2 days)

ASO (Antisense to growth hormone receptor)—ISIS 227446 (SEQ ID NO: 104) (30 and 50 mg/kg once every 2 days)

Unrelated negative control oligonucleotide—ISIS 260120 (TTACCGTATGGTTCCTCACT; SEQ ID NO: 268), (50 mg/kg once every 2 days)

Animals were treated and serum IGF-I levels were measured as in Example 18 above. Briefly, for the one-week study, mice were given a subcutaneous dose of saline every second day, and mismatch control or antisense with administration on days 0, 2, 4, 6. On day 7, the animals were anaesthetized with pentobarbital and non-fasting blood samples collected exactly 5 minutes later from the retrobulbar plexus through heparinized capillary tubes under light ether anesthesia. Serum IGF-I measurement was done by radioimmunoassay at day 7.

In the one-week study, the growth hormone receptor antisense inhibitor ISIS 227446 reduced serum IGF-I by 33% at the 50 mg/kg dose, relative to saline control (p<0.001), and by 20% relative to the unrelated control (p<0.068). The unrelated control at the 50 mg/kg dose reduced serum IGF-I by 17% compared to saline (p>0.05).

Growth hormone receptor mRNA levels in liver tissue samples from treated and untreated mice in this one-week study were assayed. The growth hormone receptor antisense inhibitor ISIS 227446 reduced growth hormone receptor mRNA levels in liver after the one-week study by 72% at the 50 mg/kg dose, relative to saline control (p<0.0001). The 30 mg/kg dose of ISIS 227446 yielded a 50% decrease in growth hormone receptor mRNA (p<0.0001). The unrelated control oligonucleotide ISIS 260120, at 50 mg/kg, reduced growth hormone receptor mRNA levels by approximately 15% (p>0.05).

Example 21 Reduction of Growth Hormone Receptor mRNA Levels and Serum IGF-I in Animals after Treatment with Antisense to Growth Hormone Receptor-2 Week Study

A two-week study was done in similar fashion to the one-week study in Example 18, this time using ISIS 227446 at doses of 3, 5, 10, 20 and 30 mg/kg. The mismatch control was given at the same doses. Mice were treated with antisense compound or saline every other day for 14 days.

Table 5 shows the serum IGF-I levels in mice treated for 14 days. P-values were determined by t-test.

TABLE 5 Two week mouse study- serum IGF-I levels after treatment with antisense inhibitor of growth hormone receptor Dose of Day 14 % decrease ISIS 227446 serum IGF-I relative to 3 (mg/kg) ng/ml mg/kg ISIS 227446 p-value 30 126 41 0.0002 20 122 43 0.0002 10 130 39 0.0002 5 194 9 0.3261 3 214 0 —

The reduction in serum IGF-I at 14 days was dependent on dose with 39-43% decrease in levels achieved at >10 mg/kg compared to 3 mg/kg. The 3 mg/kg dose of ISIS 227446 had no effect on serum IGF-I levels and was equivalent to saline (untreated) control (shown in separate experiment).

Mismatch controls gave lesser reductions in serum IGF-I levels. These results are shown in Table 6. The effect at 30 mg/kg observed with the mismatch oligonucleotide at 2 weeks was not observed with an unrelated negative control oligonucleotide (ISIS 260120; SEQ ID NO: 268).

TABLE 6 Two week mouse study- serum IGF-I levels after treatment with mismatch control ISIS 261303 Dose of Day 14 % decrease ISIS 261303 serum IGF-I relative to 3 (mg/kg) ng/ml mg/kg ISIS 261303 p-value 30 130 29 0.0094 20 164 11 0.2496 10 174 5 0.6160 5 186 0 0.9359 3 184 0 —

Growth hormone receptor mRNA levels in liver tissue samples from treated and untreated mice in this two-week study were assayed. The growth hormone receptor antisense inhibitor ISIS 227446 reduced growth hormone receptor mRNA levels in liver after the two-week study by 50% at the 20 mg/kg dose relative to saline control (p<0.001). The 30 mg/kg dose of ISIS 227446 yielded a 53% decrease in growth hormone receptor mRNA (p<0.0001). The mismatch control oligonucleotide ISIS 261303 (SEQ ID NO: 267), at 30 mg/kg, reduced growth hormone receptor mRNA levels by approximately 3%.

Example 22 Effect of Antisense Inhibition of Growth Hormone Receptor on Retinopathy

Retinopathy of prematurity is a neovascularization disorder that can lead to blindness in very low birth weight infants. The retinopathy (abnormal blood vessel formation) is initiated by relatively high oxygen levels such as are found in infant incubators, for example. A mouse model of retinopathy (abnormal blood vessel formation in the retina) is used to study the effects of drugs on the extent of neovascularization.

Seven-day-old mice are placed in an infant incubator with their nursing mother in 75% oxygen from postnatal day 7 to day 12 to produce oxygen-induced retinopathy as described in the literature. Smith et al., 1994, Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 35, 101-111; Robinson et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA., 1996, May 14; 93, 4851-6. Oxygen concentration is measured at least daily while the animals are in oxygen. On postnatal day 12, the animals are returned to room air. Animals are sacrificed on postnatal day 17 when maximal neovascularization is observed.

Mice are dosed with antisense oligonucleotide at postnatal days 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16 or days 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 15 and 17. Oligonucleotide is administered intraperitoneally at concentrations of 5, 10, 20 and 30 mg/kg. The mismatch control ISIS 261303 and/or the unrelated negative antisense control ISIS 260120 are also given.

Example 23 Additional Models

Studies using antisense inhibitors of growth hormone receptor are also done in the following pathology animal models and in humans as would be understood by those skilled in the art: diabetic nephropathy type I and type II models, cancer models, arthritis models and chemotherapy induced diarrhea models.

Example 24 Effect of Antisense Inhibition of Growth Hormone Receptor on Retinopathy

Oxygen-induced retinopathy (also called retinopathy of prematurity or ROP) in laboratory animals is a widely used model for the study of retinal microvascular complications. Wilkinson-Berka et al., 2003, Invest. Opthalmol. V is Sci. 44, 974; Morayski, C. et al., 2000, Hypertension, 36,1099-1104.

This model was used to study the effects of antisense inhibition of growth hormone receptor on the extent of neovascularization.

To produce ROP, seven-day-old mice were placed in an infant incubator with their nursing mother in 75% oxygen from postnatal day 7 to day 12 as described in the literature. Smith et al., 1994, Invest Ophthalmol V is Sci 35, 101-111; Robinson et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA., 1996, May 14; 93, 4851-6. On postnatal day 12, the animals were returned to room air. Animals were sacrificed on postnatal day 17 when maximal neovascularization is observed. Sham-treated animals are handled similarly but are maintained in room air at all times.

Mice were dosed with antisense oligonucleotide in saline (total volume 100:1) at postnatal days 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16 or days 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 15 and 17. Oligonucleotide was administered intraperitoneally at concentrations of 5, 10, 20 and 30 mg/kg. The mismatch control ISIS 261303 is also given.

Blood vessel profiles (BVPs) in the inner retina are quantitated in eyes from 36 experimental groups. Each group contains 8 retina from 8 different mice. Tables 7, 8 and 9 indicate 1) from which groups eyes have been collected to date for sectioning and 2) how many animals have had BVPs quantitated to date in each experimental group. The groups that have been analyzed to date are in bold in Tables 7-9 and results are presented in Table 10.

“Early intervention” (“Early I” in Tables 8-10) is used to describe mice pups that have been administered agents at postnatal days 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 15 and 17 (7 doses). “Late intervention” (“Late I” in Tables 7-10) is used to describe mice pups administered agents at postnatal days 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 (5 doses). All treatments were by intraperitoneal injection. Counting of blood vessel profiles (BVPs) in the inner retina is performed in a masked manner by investigators blinded to the experimental groups.

TABLE 7 Untreated ROP and shams Groups for which data have been processed are in bold No. of Number of Dosing retina retina Group Com- Regi- collected quantitated No. Group pound Dose men to date to date 30 sham Vehicle none Late I 8 8 29 ROP Vehicle none Late I 7 7

TABLE 8 Experimental groups - Monotherapy with ISIS 227446 Groups for which data have been processed are in bold No. of No. of retina Dosing retina quan- Group Com- Regi- collected titated No. Group pound Dose men to date to date 10 sham 227446  5 mg/kg Early I 7 0 8 sham 227446 10 mg/kg Early I 6 0 6 sham 227446 20 mg/kg Early I 5 5 4 sham 227446 30 mg/kg Early I 8 8 9 ROP 227446  5 mg/kg Early I 6 6 7 ROP 227446 10 mg/kg Early I 6 6 5 ROP 227446 20 mg/kg Early I 6 6 3 ROP 227446 30 mg/kg Early I 4 4 26 sham 227446  5 mg/kg Late I 5 0 24 sham 227446 10 mg/kg Late I 8 0 22 sham 227446 20 mg/kg Late I 9 0 20 sham 227446 30 mg/kg Late I 7 7 25 ROP 227446  5 mg/kg Late I 6 6 23 ROP 227446 10 mg/kg Late I 7 7 21 ROP 227446 20 mg/kg Late I 0 0 19 ROP 227446 30 mg/kg Late I 7 7

TABLE 9 Monotherapy with ISIS 261303 (mismatch control) Groups for which data have been processed are in bold No. of No. of retina Dosing retina quan- Group Com- Regi- collected titated No. Group pound Dose men to date to date 2 sham 261303 20 mg/kg Early I 0 0 1 ROP 261303 20 mg/kg Early I 0 0 15 sham 261303 20 mg/kg Late I 0 0 16 ROP 261303 20 mg/kg Late I 5 0

In each group, the right eye was enucleated and the retina dissected. Each retina was separately frozen at −80° C. Samples of liver, kidney and spleen from each animal were also frozen at −80° C. for analysis of growth hormone receptor expression. Approximately 0.2 mL of blood was collected from each animal prior to death, yielding approximately 0.1 mL of plasma per sample. Plasma was stored at −20° C.

Quantitation of BVP in the inner retina for animals analyzed to date is shown in Table 10.

TABLE 10 Number of blood vessel profiles (BVPs) in the inner retina of mice with retinopathy (ROP) after treatment with ISIS 227446 Number of Average # Treatment Condition Dosing Regimen animals (n) BVPs Sham + vehicle 8 10.91* Sham + 20 mg/kg EarlyI 5 9.97* Sham + 30 mg/kg EarlyI 8 10.94* Sham + 30 mg/kg LateI 7 11.25* ROP + vehicle 7 27.71 ROP + 5 mg/kg EarlyI 6 28.25 ROP + 10 mg/kg EarlyI 6 23.18 ROP + 20 mg/kg EarlyI 6 17.29** ROP + 30 mg/kg EarlyI 4 19.5*** ROP + 5 mg/kg LateI 6 25.19 ROP + 10 mg/kg LateI 7 22.24*** ROP + 30 mg/kg LateI 7 24.24 Values in Table 10 are means for each group. *= P < 0.0001 compared to ROP + vehicle; **= P < 0.005 compared to ROP + vehicle; ***= P < 0.05 compared to ROP + vehicle.

In the inner retina, blood vessel profiles were found to be increased in mice with retinopathy that had been treated with vehicle compared to sham-treated mice similarly treated with vehicle. Early intervention with either 20 mg/kg/day or 30 mg/kg/day of the antisense inhibitor ISIS 227446 reduced blood vessel profiles in the inner retina of mice with retinopathy. There was no effect of early intervention with ISIS 227446 on blood vessel profiles in sham-treated (no retinopathy) mice. Late intervention with ISIS 227446 at a dose of 10 mg/kg/day also reduced blood vessel profiles in the inner retina of mice with retinopathy. 

1. A compound of from 8 to 80 nucleobases in length targeted to a nucleic acid molecule encoding growth hormone receptor, wherein said compound specifically hybridizes with said nucleic acid molecule encoding growth hormone receptor (SEQ ID NO: 4 or SEQ ID NO: 18) and inhibits the expression of growth hormone receptor.
 2. A compound according to claim 1 which is from 12 to 50 nucleobases in length.
 3. A compound according to claim 1 which is from 15 to 30 nucleobases in length.
 4. A compound according to claim 1 comprising an oligonucleotide.
 5. A compound according to claim 4 in which the oligonucleotide is an antisense oligonucleotide.
 6. A compound according to claim 4 in which the oligonucleotide is a DNA oligonucleotide.
 7. A compound according to claim 4 in which the oligonucleotide is a RNA oligonucleotide.
 8. A compound according to claim 4 in which the oligonucleotide is a chimeric oligonucleotide.
 9. A compound according to claim 7 which is a short interfering RNA (siRNA) molecule.
 10. A compound according to claim 1 having at least 70% complementarity with the nucleic acid molecule encoding growth hormone receptor (SEQ ID NO: 4 or SEQ ID NO: 18)
 11. A compound according to claim 1 having at least 80% complementarity with the nucleic acid molecule encoding growth hormone receptor (SEQ ID NO: 4 or SEQ ID NO: 18).
 12. A compound according to claim 1 having at least 90% complementarity with the nucleic acid molecule encoding growth hormone receptor (SEQ ID NO: 4 or SEQ ID NO: 18).
 13. A compound according to claim 1 having at least 95% complementarity with the nucleic acid molecule encoding growth hormone receptor (SEQ ID NO: 4 or SEQ ID NO: 18).
 14. A compound according to claim 1 which comprises at least an 8-nucleobase portion of SEQ ID NO: 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 91, 92, 93 or
 94. 15. A compound according to claim 14 in which the oligonucleotide is selected from SEQ ID NOs: 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 91, 92, 93 and
 94. 16. A compound according to claim 15 in which the oligonucleotide is selected from SEQ ID NOs: 30, 44 and
 57. 17. A compound according to claim 1 in which the compound specifically hybridises with a region, encoding growth hormone receptor (SEQ ID NO: 4 or SEQ ID NO: 18), which region, segment or site comprises a translation initiation codon, a termination codon, a coding region, a 5′ untranslated region, a 3′ untranslated region, an intron:exon junction or an exon:intron junction.
 18. A compound according to claim 17 in which the region, segment or site of the nucleic acid molecule comprises at least an 8-nucleobase portion of a sequence selected from SEQ ID NOs: 161-232.
 19. A compound according to claim 1 which inhibits the expression of growth hormone receptor by at least 45%.
 20. A compound according to claim 1 having at least one modified internucleoside linkage, sugar moiety, or nucleobase.
 21. A compound according to claim 20 having at least one 2′-O-methoxyethyl sugar moiety.
 22. A compound according to claim 20 having at least one phosphorothioate internucleoside linkage.
 23. A compound according to claim 20 having at least one 5-methylcytosine.
 24. A method of inhibiting the expression of growth hormone receptor in cells or tissues comprising contacting said cells or tissues with a compound according to claim
 1. 25. A method of screening for a modulator of growth hormone receptor, the method comprising the steps of: a) contacting a preferred target segment of a nucleic acid molecule encoding growth hormone receptor with one or more candidate modulators of growth hormone receptor, and b) identifying one or more modulators of growth hormone receptor expression which modulate the expression of growth hormone receptor.
 26. The method of claim 25 wherein the modulator of growth hormone receptor expression comprises an oligonucleotide, an antisense oligonucleotide, a DNA oligonucleotide, an RNA oligonucleotide, an RNA oligonucleotide having at least a portion of said RNA oligonucleotide capable of hybridizing with RNA to form an oligonucleotide-RNA duplex, or a chimeric oligonucleotide.
 27. The method of claim 25 further comprising “benchmarking” the candidate modulator of growth hormone receptor relative to a known inhibitor of growth hormone receptor signalling, activity or expression or the growth hormone/insulin-like growth factor axis.
 28. The method of claim 27 wherein the known inhibitor of growth hormone receptor signalling, activity or expression is a dopamine agonist, a somatostatin analog or growth hormone receptor antagonist.
 29. The method of claim 28 wherein the known inhibitor of growth hormone receptor signalling, activity or expression is Trovert, octreotide, Sandostatin, bromocriptine mesylate or cabergoline or a compound of claim
 1. 30. A diagnostic method for identifying a disease state comprising identifying the presence of growth hormone receptor in a sample using at least one of the primers comprising SEQ ID NOs 5 or 6, or the probe comprising SEQ ID NO
 7. 31. A kit or assay device comprising the compound of claim
 1. 32. A method of treating an animal having a disease or condition associated with growth hormone receptor signalling or the growth hormone/insulin-like growth factor axis comprising administering to said animal a therapeutically or prophylactically effective amount of an oligonucleotide capable of modulating growth hormone receptor or insulin-like growth factor levels or expression.
 33. A method according to claim 32 in which the oligonucleotide is a compound according to claim
 1. 34. A method according to claim 32 in which the disease or condition is acromegaly, gigantism, cancer, diabetes, diabetic nephropathy, diabetic retinopathy, aberrant neovascularization, aberrant angiogenesis, macular degeneration, rheumatoid arthritis or shortened lifespan.
 35. A method according to claim 32 in which the animal is a human.
 36. A method of inhibiting the expression of insulin-like growth factor-1 in cells or tissues comprising contacting said cells or tissues with a compound according to claim 1 so that expression of growth hormone receptor and insulin-like growth factor-1 are inhibited.
 37. A method of screening for a modulator of growth hormone receptor signaling, the method comprising the steps of: a) contacting a preferred target segment of a nucleic acid molecule encoding growth hormone receptor with one or more candidate modulators of growth hormone receptor, and b) identifying one or more modulators of growth hormone receptor expression which modulate growth hormone receptor signalling.
 38. The method of claim 37 wherein the modulator of growth hormone receptor expression comprises an oligonucleotide, an antisense oligonucleotide, a DNA oligonucleotide, an RNA oligonucleotide, an RNA oligonucleotide having at least a portion of said RNA oligonucleotide capable of hybridizing with RNA to form an oligonucleotide-RNA duplex, or a chimeric oligonucleotide.
 39. The method of claim 37 wherein the modulator of growth hormone receptor expression modulates insulin-like growth factor-1 expression.
 40. The method of claim 37 further comprising “benchmarking” the candidate modulator of growth hormone receptor relative to a known inhibitor of growth hormone receptor signalling, activity or expression or the growth hormone/insulin-like growth factor axis.
 41. The method of claim 40 wherein the known inhibitor of growth hormone receptor signalling, activity or expression is a dopamine agonist, a somatostatin analog or growth hormone receptor antagonist.
 42. The method of claim 41 wherein the known inhibitor of growth hormone receptor signalling, activity or expression is Trovert, octreotide, Sandostatin, bromocriptine mesylate or cabergoline or a compound of claim
 1. 43. Use of a compound targeted to a nucleic acid molecule encoding growth hormone receptor in the manufacture of a medicament for the treatment of a disease or condition associated with growth hormone receptor signalling.
 44. The use according to claim 43 wherein the compound targeted to a nucleic acid molecule encoding growth hormone receptor is an antisense oligonucleotide targeted to a nucleic acid molecule encoding growth hormone.
 45. The use according to claim 43 wherein the disease or condition is acromegaly, gigantism, cancer, diabetes, diabetic nephropathy, diabetic retinopathy, aberrant neovascularization, aberrant angiogenesis, macular degeneration, rheumatoid arthritis or shortened lifespan.
 46. A method of decreasing the number of blood vessels in the retina of an animal with retinopathy comprising administering to said animal an effective amount of a compound of claim
 1. 47. The method of claim 46 wherein the retinopathy is retinopathy of prematurity.
 48. The method of claim 46 wherein the animal is a mouse or a human. 